By all accounts, work is set to kick off any day now at the 31-floor mixed-use tower project known as (and located at) Symphony Square — within the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen demolition permits filed for the existing office buildings at the 1.7-acre site, along with permits for the raising of the project’s 430-foot tower…
Demolition Underway at Hanover Brazos Street Tower Site in Downtown Austin
Since many of you are still working from home, we’d be remiss not to inform you of the latest development in Austin’s ongoing race to the first downtown tower groundbreaking of 2021 — demolition is underway even as we speak at the southeast corner of East Third and Brazos Streets, the future site of the 45-floor Hanover Brazos Street tower project by apartment…
The Forgotten Midcentury Dream of Gondolas Over Lake Austin
Austin’s best-known architectural duo Fehr & Granger are remembered locally for the classic midcentury designs they brought to the city, with iconic buildings like the whimsical control tower and terminal of the former Mueller Airport. But this famed partnership of modernists also worked on a few projects that didn’t pan out, and we often find that unbuilt plans contain some of the…
Here’s How the Hike-and-Bike Trail Plans to Accommodate Austin’s Eternal Boom
Last year, the Trail Foundation nonprofit tasked with the stewardship of Austin’s beloved Hike-and-Bike Trail kicked off a community engagement process soliciting feedback from locals, part of a comprehensive safety and mobility study outlining how the city’s growth has impacted the trail’s environment and the experience of its hikers and bikers — and how we can confront these challenges with…
Before 911, Emergencies Had Austinites Flipping Through the Phone Book
Amid the trials of last month’s historic winter storm, many Austinites who hadn’t experienced such extreme weather here in a generation found themselves in situations requiring emergency services, with a massive surge in 911 calls straining the resources of local first responders for the duration of the crisis. Though our dispatch system certainly showed it has some limits, we’re confident nobody had…
South Austin Gets Its Own Skyline at the Reimagined Brodie Oaks Retail Center
The $1 billion plan to redevelop South Austin’s Brodie Oaks shopping center into a 36.7-acre mixed-use district with more than 1,600 residential units, 1.1 million square feet of office space, restaurants, retail, a hotel, and 13.7 acres of open space reclaimed from the aging 1981 retail center’s massive parking lots is one of the most popular…