Preservation Austin’s Homes Tour celebrates its 30th anniversary this April, and to mark the occasion the 2023 edition of this flagship fundraising event for Austin’s own historic stewardship nonprofit offers an inside look at historic homes all over town — with 11 properties total, the tour will be a two-day event, with viewings of six homes in Central and…
About James Rambin
St. Elmo Residential Project Seeks Serious Height in South Austin
The ongoing transformation of the industrial district surrounding St. Elmo Road east of Congress Avenue in South Austin is currently one of the city’s most promising case studies for large-scale urban redevelopment with character. Like the best examples of growth in East Austin, the St. Elmo region could easily support a large number of new developments on its vacant lots, scrapyards, and other…
Triangle State Office Complex Prepares for Phase 2, and a Lot More Parking
The 1980s-era John H. Winters state office complex housing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission at the southeast corner of North Lamar Boulevard and West 51st Street in the Central Austin district popularly known as the Triangle received a pretty nice upgrade from the Texas Facilities Commission in 2021, with a new 406,000-square-foot office building by architects Jacobs and…
Hancock Center Is Officially Austin’s #1 Target for Brodie Oaksification
If you’ve tuned in over the last few weeks, you’ll see we’ve been mulling the topic of Brodie Oaksification around here — the crackpot fantasy of instantly transforming another one of Austin’s sprawled-out shopping centers into a new mixed-use development just like what’s currently planned at Brodie Oaks, a project increasing the housing and commercial space of its land with the help of dense construction…
Baker School Building Seeks National Historic Status in Hyde Park
A former public school building in the heart of Austin’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood is now seeking inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, with an application for the Baker School site at 3908 Avenue B on the agenda of the Texas Historical Commission’s next State Board of Review meeting on May 13. Dating back to 1911…
Downtown Austin’s Next Hotel Takes on Red River’s Most Eligible Parking Lots
Last week, we noted the second possible demolition of an Extended Stay America hotel in the central city to make room for taller growth, but that doesn’t mean the mid-tier extended stay hotel is obsolete in downtown Austin — ha ha, au contraire! City permit filings from this month indicate plans for the development of a 166-room TownePlace Suites…