Preservation Austin’s 2022 Homes Tour is trying something a bit different this spring — out of six stops along the event, only one is a house. With that in mind, the tour’s theme this year is “Out of the House,” and this fundraising event will provide its guests with a look inside an eclectic group of historic spaces the preservation nonprofit believes are representative…
Step Inside East Austin’s Transformative Springdale Green Office Project
The Springdale Green office development now underway at Springdale Road and Airport Boulevard in East Austin represents nearly an ideal future for a former industrial site with an almost 50-year backstory of poisoning its neighborhood. This 30-acre property operated from the 1940s to the 1990s as a “tank farm” for the above-ground storage of petroleum products, its facilities located…
Flash Back to Austin 1984 With These Vintage Views of Downtown’s Gold Bank
In 1984, designer and lifelong Austinite Travis Klein worked the second shift at the former Whitley Printing Company building at East Third and Brazos Streets in downtown, riding his bike from West Austin with the sunset behind him. Outside of a few familiar buildings, the skyline looked almost nothing like the city we know now — but one building in particular, the…
Oracle Buys Out Town Lake Village Condos, With Demolition on Deck
Demolition could be on the way for the Town Lake Village condo community after a buyout of its 74 units at 1201 Tinnin Ford Road by new neighbor Oracle Corporation, which after establishing its new headquarters nearby on Lakeshore Boulevard in 2018 has rapidly expanded its presence with several parcels in the area under its control. Sources close to the deal indicate a…
Culture or Courthouse at a Historic Municipal Building in Downtown Austin
On March 24, Austin City Council will, once again, consider approving actions to permanently move the Downtown Austin Community Court to the former City Municipal Building at 124 West Eighth Street. Key downtown stakeholders, residents, property owners, and business operators oppose the proposed actions, which were postponed by city council on Dec. 2, Jan. 27…
East Austin ‘Micro-Unit’ Apartments Break Ground at Sixth and Chicon
A six-story “micro-housing” apartment project by local commercial real estate firm Watershed Development Group has officially broken ground in East Austin, bringing 60 residences to an approximately quarter-acre site at 1812 East Sixth Street. This 34,364-square-foot building, named Sixth and Chicon after the nearby intersection, features apartments ranging from 252 to 465 square feet in size — overall, the average size…