Texas’ most acclaimed architecture studio could soon bring its tallest building yet to one of Austin’s most famous streets. Rising 48 floors and 571 feet at the northeast corner of Rainey and River Streets in the heart of the Rainey Street District, the project currently known as the River Street Residences designed by San Antonio-based architecture firm Lake…
Enjoyed by More Austinites Than Ever, the Hike-and-Bike Trail Plans for Growth
Austin’s much-loved Hike-and-Bike Trail has likely never been so important as an outdoor recreation facility of choice for downtown dwellers, even with a few pandemic-related challenges — and judging by its heavy use even during this endless crisis, not to mention the continual growth of the local housing market in spite of economic uncertainty elsewhere, it’s important to keep in…
Take a Funky Ride on the Cutting-Edge Public Transportation of 1970s Austin
As Austin prepares to vote on the historic $7.1 billion transit plan known as Project Connect, we thought it might be a good time to look back at the history of public transportation in our fair city — and the Austin History Center clearly feels the same, uploading this priceless video to its YouTube page earlier this month:…
West 12th Tower Plan Straddles a Historic Fence With Two Design Options
The potential demolition of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Headquarters located in the west end of downtown Austin at 416 West 12th Street for a 31-floor residential tower project by developers Stratus Properties remains an unpopular proposition for the City of Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission — and that’s despite two new design options presented to the HLC’s Architecture Review Committee…
Mapping O. Henry’s Local Legacy Through Downtown Austin Architecture
Pandemic season’s a great time to brush up on your local history, armchair-style, and the thing about pandemic season is that it never seems to end — so thankfully a lot of Austin’s best cultural and historical institutions have stepped up to provide us with virtual tours and other online media to fill the gap normally occupied by doing things in…
Central Austin Development Roundup: We’re Going Downtown Again
Show of hands, who thought we would still be doing this in October? One interesting side effect of the pandemic, if you’re one of the chosen ones lucky enough to still be working from home, is that when you finally do go downtown you’ll likely be struck by just how much progress some of our…