Every day in Austin, an invisible exchange takes place beneath your feet — the ceding of valuable land to vast amounts of free parking, which you pay for all the time even if you never use it. Parking takes up space, space costs money, and that cost along with the cost of constructing the parking in the first…
News
Several New Towers Could Sprout Across Downtown Austin This Spring
The temperature outside is currently cold and dropping, but there’s a new day on the horizon — according to recent city permits and other development activity, we’ll see multiple downtown Austin condo, apartment, and office towers sprout in the coming months like the first flowers of spring. It’s clear that 2022 represents a big year…
Where Does Austin’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Network Really Suck?
If you’re looking to get around Austin without a car for business or pleasure, you’ll notice a relative lack of sidewalks pretty fast once you venture outside of downtown — it’s a longstanding issue, with the city estimating in 2019 that our pedestrian network was roughly only half connected, though we’ve added quite a lot since the approval of a new sidewalk…
Here’s How Austin’s Mexican American Cultural Center Plans To Double in Size
The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) at 600 River Street is the gem of downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood, a stunning work of Mesoamerican-inspired modernism designed by the late Mexican architect Teodoro González de León working alongside Hispanic-owned local studio CasaBella Architects. It’s reflective of the neighborhood’s rapidly-fading history as a working-class Mexican American enclave, and as such will always represent much more than a…
Demolition Applications Could Signal Two New Towers in Downtown Austin
A list of demolition applications under review for consideration at the upcoming January 24 meeting of the city’s Historic Landmark Commission tells the story of two possible new tower developments headed for downtown Austin, if you look closely — actually, the clues are incredibly obvious. Let’s take a peek for ourselves: 307 – 311 East…
Turning a Corner at 415 Colorado
Demolition is scheduled to begin this week at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Colorado Streets in downtown Austin, clearing several buildings for the construction of a 47-floor residential and office tower developed by Texas private equity firm Stonelake Capital Partners. The project, at the moment known simply by its address at 415 Colorado, will…