"The architect said we needed 24 square feet for the garage."

That doesn't sound right. 24 sq. feet would be a 4' x6' garage. Maybe 24' square? And is that outside or inside dimensions? If it's outside you'll loose almost a foot in framing and sheathing.

A 24' square garage sounds a little generous by today's standards but not overly so. To my way of thinking most garages are a little to small necessitating extra care when opening car doors or moving around.

What are your plans for storage of things like the lawn mower or kids bikes?

You're paying an architect a fair amount of money for his expertise. What questions have you asked him?

Mike

I asked him the dimensions of a standard 2 car garage and he gave me 24x 24 not 24 sq feet! Sorry. As we were trying to squeeze into the lot he revised the depth downward to as little as 18 feet deep. Storage can be added on the width of the garage, which we'll expand to 30 feet leaving about a 20x30 square foot garage.
He usually responds to what we say our needs are, and I was posting to see what other people wish they had done with a new garage plan.

I was wondering about building a loft for storage. My own storage needs are not so great, but I'm thinking also about future owners.

Don

I wouldnt put a loft in unless you need it. You will not get your money back out of a garage bonus room. I am building a 32 x 46 detached right now and when pricing the trusses, I found out they were over 100 dollars more per truss. I need 24 trusses which means that room costs over 3K with floor, stairs and other things. It isnt worth the money in my situation. I can build a Pole Barn for equipment storage and have a larger space for the same money. Dont forget the stairs will occupy space inside your garage also.

I would go a little deeper than 20 ft if you can fit it into your plan and wallet. Mine is 20 ft. My car fits in fine, but I wouldn't mind having more space so it would not be so tight. I also couldn't fit an extended cab, long bed pickup in mine, which is something I would like to eventually have.
How long are you current cars?

My car, a Lexus ES300, is 190 inches overall length, so that would leave over 4 feet of clearance in a 20 foot deep garage. I take your point about the need for additional storage space, but we hope to add that on to the side with a 30 foot wide garage.

The standard width is two 9 ft doors seperated by 4 ft. with 2 ft on each side. That would be 26 ft wide. (mine is 20) I forgot how deep but my nieghbors is 32 ft. Some people can park a full size boat sideways and still park a truck in it. Not me mine is 20 ft deep. I think the standard size that is seldom built in houses for about 30 years now is 26 by ( I want to say 32 but I have not found out yet).

kcshawman, why dig up a post that is over 2 years old for that? i hope the OP has their garage built by now.