Block 185, the downtown Austin office tower project best known as the future home of Google, has made significant progress since its groundbreaking back in the downright prehistoric era of 2019 — and though it hasn’t reached its full height of 594 feet just yet, the 35-floor building’s ever-growing prominence on the downtown skyline is becoming increasingly difficult to…
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Commentary, analysis, and quick thoughts on almost everything in town.
When Calcasieu Lumber Ruled Austin’s Wood Game, We Never Ran Low on Logs
Though you’ll find a lot more steel and concrete than wood these days in downtown’s newest towers, you might have heard something lately about the role of lumber prices in Austin’s “extraordinary” housing market, currently commanding the highest sales over asking price for new homes of any major city in the nation — in fact, it’s estimated that rising costs of lumber across the country…
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…
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…
Shaping the Future of Austin’s Greatest Park With the Zilker Vision Plan
More than a century after Andrew Jackson Zilker donated approximately 350 acres of land to the City of Austin to create what would eventually become the city’s favorite metropolitan park, we find ourselves in an embarrassing predicament — Zilker Park has never had a master plan! Well, there have of course been plans over the years, but not…
Marking the Medical History of East Austin at Holy Cross Hospital
A new historical marker for East Austin recently approved by the Undertold Markers program of the Texas Historical Commission will soon commemorate the final site of the former Holy Cross Hospital, the city’s first hospital for Black patients — and the first to allow Black physicians to practice alongside whites with equal privileges at the time of its opening in…