WHEN A CERTAIN ALPINE, N.J., HOMEOWNER CLICKS THE REMOTE CONTROL in his car, he does more than just open a garage door. He activates a digital garage. At the tap of a button, recessed halogen lighting illuminates a 1,600-square-foot subterranean car park that holds what may well be the finest collection of vintage Lamborghini sports cars in North America. Adding to the glitter and gleam are a few Ferraris and a Maserati MC12 that, alone, is valued at $1.2 million. The sound system is pretty impressive, too.

It's an experience that has people drawing comparisons not normally reserved for a new home's garage.

“It's like entering a high-end auto showroom,” says design consultant, Steve D'Gerolamo, owner of Ultimate Garage in nearby Emerson, N.J.

Or as integrator Gabriel Karlis, president of JD Audio and Video Design in Fort Lee, N.J., puts it, “It's like going into the Bat Cave, only with better audio and video.”

Garage Band

Today's new family room almost certainly has a flat-screen TV, and a kitchen may have smart appliances. A basement often holds a home theater, while an entire home may have built-in audio and lighting controls. These are the hallmarks of the digital home. But what's a designer to do with the garage? Many are finding out.

The newest frontier in residential technology may be the garage, a notion that makes complete sense to some designers and integrators.

“The garage is becoming a more integrated space because more utilities and data—electric, water, gas, broadband, cable—are using it as the point of entry into the home,” says D'Gerolamo, who has been designing high-end garages since 1994. “I treat it like a data center.”

Some garage touches are decidedly high-end, meant to accommodate something spectacular like an extensive car collection. Others are logical extensions of systems that run a digital home. In the Alpine garage, an automated, 12-foot turntable in the middle of the room helps in maneuvering any of the homeowner's 24 cars. Temperature and humidity monitors, and water leak detectors are integrated into the home's security system to protect the expensive auto collection. And that's just the beginning.