This October, the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects will host its 36th annual AIA Austin Homes Tour as a fully in-person event, following past virtual and hybrid versions of the tour staged in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic concerns. The event’s return to form as one of the nation’s longest-running celebrations of residential architecture features self-guided tours of new and renovated…
Condo Projects
The latest news from Austin's hottest real estate market.
Brush Square’s Transformation Is Finally Under Construction in Downtown Austin
The plan by the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department to renovate downtown’s Brush Square into a more accessible public outdoor space has finally kicked off its first phase, with the site currently fenced off and visible construction underway since late last month. That’s a big ol’ sigh of relief you’re hearing from us — to…
This 135-Year-Old Downtown Austin Building Could Learn Some New Tricks
A project presented to the Architectural Review Committee of the City of Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission earlier this week would modify a 135-year-old downtown Austin building with a significant renovation including an extra floor, according to documents presented at the committee’s August 8 meeting. Overseen by acclaimed local studio Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, the plan would modify the Heierman…
A Midcentury Modern Church Heads for Historic Status in Downtown Austin
Perhaps Austin’s most striking modernist house of worship in the downtown area, the vaulted roof of St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church stands as a timeless example of local midcentury architecture at 606 West 15th Street. Completed in 1960, the church fuses old and new by incorporating the ancient historical form of a Gothic cathedral’s vaulted basilica, adapted in…
Downtown Austin’s Future Street Network Could Use Your Help
Transformative infrastructure improvements like the multiple planned transit lines of Project Connect and the controversial expansion of I-35 through downtown don’t get built in a vacuum — they’re potentially highly disruptive during their construction, but the physical placement and accommodation of these projects in the limited space of downtown also implies more permanent changes to some parts of the…
Austin’s Mexican American Cultural Center Closing for Expansion This Year
The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) located at 600 River Street is an often-overlooked masterpiece of Mesoamerican-inspired modernist architecture, standing at the crown of downtown Austin’s ever-changing Rainey Street District and representing the historic working-class Mexican American character of the neighborhood prior to its rapid development starting in the 2000s. Designed by the late Mexican architect Teodoro González de León with Hispanic-owned…