The Block 32 project proposed by local developer Manifold Real Estate could bring a pair of residential towers to a half-block site one block away from the Austin Convention Center at the corner of East Third and San Jacinto Streets downtown — and let’s be real, after the last bit of news on the project dropped last summer, we weren’t sure we’d ever hear…
Here’s How Downtown Austin’s Block-Sized Hobby Building Could Redevelop
An announcement last week that the State of Texas is working with the City of Austin to redevelop the long-suffering state office complex known as the Hobby Building, located on a full downtown Austin block at 333 Guadalupe Street, was barely news — the building lost its population of state employees for greener, less rat-infested pastures at the Capitol Complex last year, and once…
Notes on the Future of Zilker Park
Last week, we asked our readers for some thoughtful takes on the future of Zilker, and how the park might best accommodate Austin’s ongoing growth now that the vision planning process has hit a dead end. After all the vitriol spread over the last year about how the plan spelled the end of the park as we know it, the hundreds of responses we received to last…
What’s Next for Downtown Austin’s Silliest Capitol View Corridors?
The Capitol View Corridors protecting various perspectives of the Capitol dome throughout the central city are an effective metaphor for Austin itself, each an invisible monument to the decades-long spiritual battle between past and future defining so many aspects of our local culture. The CVCs shape the city’s built environment by projecting what are essentially dozens of invisible force fields limiting the…
Wanna Unlock More Housing Across Austin? Start Thinking Small
Would you rather live in a small building or a big one? In Austin, you often don’t get a choice, but that could change soon. Recent tweaks proposed for Austin’s land development code by City Council earlier this summer hope to unlock multifamily projects on smaller properties across the city, joining other efforts to incentivize the construction of more affordable…
What’s Next for Zilker Park?
The unceremonious shelving of the Zilker Vision Plan announced earlier this week after years of work doesn’t really inspire much confidence in Austin’s civic process. In fact, it’s evidence that the city’s current leadership is capable of being swayed towards inaction by threats, conspiracies, and the same entrenched local interests that obstructed progress on zoning reform a few years back — and we’ve seen over…