As part of our ongoing love affair with Virginia McAlester’s 1984 book, “A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture,” we’re occasionally taking a look at different architectural styles described in the book and hunting down good examples of them around Austin. Last time, we checked out Tudor architecture, which worked out great,…
Demolition Starts at 91 Red River This Month, Clearing Site for 30-Story Tower
The folks at Endeavor Real Estate Group aren’t wasting any time on the 30-story mixed-use tower planned at 91 Red River Street. The building, called Red River Tower in some documents, will bring 328 apartments, three floors of office space, and ground-level retail to the growing Rainey Street District — and demolition clearing the .74-acre site for the tower’s construction begins…
In Loving Memory: Downtown Austin’s ‘Rather Tawdry’ Alamo Hotel
Earlier this week, a demolition permit was issued by the city for the Extended Stay America building at 600 Guadalupe Street in downtown Austin. Despite its central location, this fenced-off, unremarkable low-rise structure was nearly identical to what you might find on the side of a highway anywhere else in America, and unless you were…
Lighting Up the History of Austin’s Last Original Arby’s Sign
As a bright-eyed new resident of South Austin, my search for all things local nostalgia is ongoing. My latest obsession? Imagine cruising through 1970s Austin in your Oldsmobile station wagon, windows down, hot roast beef sandwich in hand. At 4411 South Lamar Boulevard, in the southeastern corner of the snarl where Highway 290 meets Highway…
51-Story Rainey Street District Condo Tower Announced at 44 East Avenue
National real estate development firm Intracorp, based in Vancouver, has very casually dropped a press release this afternoon that completely changes the game for tall development in downtown Austin’s Rainey Street District, with the announcement of a 51-story condo tower planned at 44 East Avenue — that’s directly next door to the Windsor on the Lake apartment tower…
It’s No South Congress, but South First Street’s Quietly Building Up Anyway
Right now on South First Street, you can see a lot of cranes — it’s just that most of them are actually located over on Congress Avenue, plugging away at upcoming projects like the Hotel Magdalena and CityView redevelopment. Indeed, the scale of growth here on South First Street is smaller than many of the South Austin condo and apartment…