Built as an elementary school in 1892 and serving that purpose until 1976, the building now known as the Swante Palm School located at the northwest corner of Cesar Chavez Street and the I-35 Frontage Road has plenty of history behind it. The building, currently used as office space for Travis County’s Health and Human Services Department, is…
What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Signature Towers’ in Austin
Everyone should like tall buildings, at least to some degree. We sometimes fight over where those tall buildings should go, but pretty much ever since someone learned to stack a brick on top of another brick, we’ve done our best to point our towers to the sky and shake our fists at god. It’s very human! But there are…
The Word on the Street at 600 Guadalupe, Austin’s Tallest Tower Plan
At 848 feet, the 66-story residential and office tower planned at the northwest corner of Sixth and Guadalupe Streets in downtown Austin will be the city’s new tallest, at least for a couple of years — someone could announce a taller building tomorrow, but this project, known as 600 Guadalupe, has a solid head start….
Take a Peek at Travis County’s New Downtown Courthouse Design
We learned a couple of weeks ago that after years of indecision, Travis County had finally settled on a site for a new civil and family courthouse facility in the downtown Austin area, to be built atop the parking lot at the northwest corner of West 17th and Guadalupe Streets — part of which used to be occupied by…
Here’s The Republic, a 37-Story Office Tower Proposed at 308 Guadalupe
The Republic, a 37-story office tower project, is finally taking shape at the downtown Austin block bordered by West Third, San Antonio, West Fourth, and Guadalupe Streets. The 1.77-acre site, referred to in various filings and news items as either 401 West Fourth Street or 308 Guadalupe Street, is currently occupied by only a parking lot — and it’s one of the last remaining…
Should Austin Bring Its ‘Dillo Shuttle Back From the Dead?
For many years, the rickety brown and green ‘Dillo buses were a familiar sight around downtown Austin. A circulator shuttle operated on our central streets in the 1970s even before the formation of Capital Metro, Austin’s modern-day public transit agency, but the service wasn’t fully expanded and dubbed the “Armadillo Express” until 1984. These trolley car-lookalikes shuttled tourists, commuters…