Donated to the City of Austin in 1875 by Texas Governor Elisha M. Pease, the 84-acre Pease Park is Austin’s oldest civic green space outside of the downtown public squares laid out in the city’s original plan, and next month the facility will debut its most significant upgrade since the park’s first major improvements nearly a century ago. Known as Kingsbury Commons, the project…
It’s Not Looking Good for the Hotel Atop a Historic Building at 15th and Lavaca
The recent purchase of a historic building at the southeast corner of West 15th and Lavaca Streets in downtown Austin by the State Bar of Texas likely indicates the demise of a previously planned hotel tower project at this location. The Bartholomew-Robinson Building at 1415 Lavaca Street, built in the 1880s but most recently serving as office space for…
Here’s Our First Look at Downtown Austin’s Horizon Bank Tower
It might not be downtown Austin’s first drive-thru bank, but the Horizon Bank building at 600 West Fifth Street is definitely our newest, originally opened at the northwest corner of West Fifth and Nueces Streets in 2004 as a Sovereign Bank — banks seriously love buying other banks, shuffling them around, changing the name on the sign five times in…
What’s Next for Downtown Austin’s Finest Midcentury Drive-Thru Bank?
City pre-development filings related to utility location by an unknown applicant could point to a tower development at the site of the midcentury San Jacinto Building at 814 San Jacinto Street, a three-story office structure that first opened as a drive-thru branch of the now-defunct City National Bank in 1966. Though we have no official confirmation of a…
Sienna at the Thompson Brings Hotel-Adjacent Apartments to Fifth and Brazos
The 32-floor mixed-use tower development now nearing completion at the northeast corner of Fifth and Brazos Streets contains two Hyatt-owned hotel brands — the Thompson Hotel and the more casual, strategically-lowercased tommie — but atop the hotels and their associated retail closer to the ground at 501 Brazos Street, there’s a substantial residential component occupying the tower’s upper floors…
Colorfield Condos Break Ground at Castle Hill’s Former Graffiti Gallery
A 10-unit condo community in the Castle Hill district directly west of downtown Austin and adjacent to the Clarksville neighborhood has officially broken ground on the site of the city’s well-known and now-relocated outdoor graffiti gallery, formally known since 2011 as the HOPE Outdoor Gallery. The Colorfield condos will occupy the hillside at 1012 Baylor Street, a 1.2-acre property which famously…