The 37-floor downtown Austin apartment tower planned for the corner of East Fifth and Red River Streets by local real estate developer Stonelake Capital Partners heads to the City of Austin’s Design Commission for a review of its density bonus application on Monday next week — but since we try our best to stay on the ball around here for the…
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The 2022 AIA Austin Homes Tour Comes Back to Life for Its 36th Year
This October, the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects will host its 36th annual AIA Austin Homes Tour as a fully in-person event, following past virtual and hybrid versions of the tour staged in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic concerns. The event’s return to form as one of the nation’s longest-running celebrations of residential architecture features self-guided tours of new and renovated…
Brush Square’s Transformation Is Finally Under Construction in Downtown Austin
The plan by the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department to renovate downtown’s Brush Square into a more accessible public outdoor space has finally kicked off its first phase, with the site currently fenced off and visible construction underway since late last month. That’s a big ol’ sigh of relief you’re hearing from us — to…
This 135-Year-Old Downtown Austin Building Could Learn Some New Tricks
A project presented to the Architectural Review Committee of the City of Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission earlier this week would modify a 135-year-old downtown Austin building with a significant renovation including an extra floor, according to documents presented at the committee’s August 8 meeting. Overseen by acclaimed local studio Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, the plan would modify the Heierman…
A Midcentury Modern Church Heads for Historic Status in Downtown Austin
Perhaps Austin’s most striking modernist house of worship in the downtown area, the vaulted roof of St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church stands as a timeless example of local midcentury architecture at 606 West 15th Street. Completed in 1960, the church fuses old and new by incorporating the ancient historical form of a Gothic cathedral’s vaulted basilica, adapted in…
Downtown Austin’s Future Street Network Could Use Your Help
Transformative infrastructure improvements like the multiple planned transit lines of Project Connect and the controversial expansion of I-35 through downtown don’t get built in a vacuum — they’re potentially highly disruptive during their construction, but the physical placement and accommodation of these projects in the limited space of downtown also implies more permanent changes to some parts of the…