What is an open and enclosed parking area?
Could anybody please break these two terms up for me? I've searched online, but still couldn't find a clear answer.
"Open" and "enclosed" describe two different kinds of parking garages (US) or multistorey car parks (UK).
From the Wikipedia article (emphases in original):
United States building codes use the term open parking garage to refer to a structure designed for car storage that has openings along at least 40% of the perimeter, as opposed to an enclosed parking garage that requires mechanical ventilation.
An open parking garage is very obvious. It looks like a parking garage:
An enclosed parking garage will look more like an ordinary building from the outside. The lower levels of a high-rise or skyscraper may be taken up by an enclosed parking garage, with "real" floors above:
Photos taken from Wikipedia/Wikimedia. First photo by ŠJů under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, second photo by Averette under the CC BY 3.0 license.