The elaborate and offbeat displays of Christmas lights fashioned yearly by residents along West 37th Street in the city’s North University neighborhood are one of those “Keep Austin Weird” situations that actually lives up to our eclectic reputation. Though participation dipped in the 2000s after a group of neighbors first started the tradition in the mid-1980s, the 37th Street Lights came back strong in…
Plotting a New Beginning for East Austin’s Bolm District Park
Like a number of other large chunks of city park property still waiting for their time in the spotlight, at the moment Bolm District Park is practically a blank canvas. Located directly south of U.S. 183 on the banks of the Colorado River as it meanders into a region known for somewhat resembling the head of a dog, the…
West Sixth and Rio Grande Residential Tower Plan Not Dead Yet, Actually
Everybody wants to announce they’re building a tower, but nobody wants to announce they’re not building a tower. That state of limbo is where we find a lot of projects unveiled between 2020 and 2022 but as yet unbuilt in downtown Austin, with a slowing market and some remarkably low occupancy numbers in the office sector forcing pivots and delays all over. But…
Changing the X-Change Center in South Austin’s St. Elmo District
The St. Elmo region of South Austin has been the “next big thing” for nearly a decade. Although the ongoing infusion of residential and creative retail uses into this warehouse-heavy industrial district still has plenty of potential, the whole enterprise got a big bucket of cold water to the face earlier this month with the announcement that the long-awaited St. Elmo Public Market plan — an adaptive reuse project…
Hundreds of Apartments Replacing a Big Ol’ Drive-Thru Bank on Burnet Road
An apartment project set to bring approximately 300 new residences to a drive-thru bank and adjacent parking lot of an office building on Burnet Road is preparing to take its first steps in the Allandale neighborhood of North Central Austin, with the site plan for the development at 7618 Burnet Road now approved by the city and…
Austin’s ‘Living Streets’ Could Make Your Neighborhood Walkable Again
As a city, the hardest part about temporarily closing some of your streets to traffic and turning them into pedestrian walkways is that people start liking them too much. Even after you open the streets back up, you’ve permanently recontextualized these spaces for thousands of nearby residents by demonstrating how much of their public realm is ceded to the needs of cars,…