It’s technically a new year, but can you really tell? Just as we struggled for most of 2020 with a virus named after 2019, the specter of 2020 still looms large over 2021 — and it’s going to take a while before that feeling of being unstuck from time goes away. One place time hasn’t…
News
Austin real estate news combined with editorial and opinion.
A Pioneering Work of Black Modernism Seeks Historic Status in East Austin
John Saunders Chase, the first black licensed architect in Texas, is responsible for some of the finest examples of midcentury design still standing in East Austin. Chase, who died in 2012, was also one of the first two African-American students to enroll at the University of Texas in 1950 after the Sweatt v. Painter decision by the U.S. Supreme Court desegregated UT at…
This Downtown Austin Office Plan Has an Art Gallery – But What Is Art, Anyway?
Let’s say you’re building an office building on top of a parking garage in a pedestrian-heavy area of downtown. Though some projects manage to get away with not doing it for various tricky reasons, for a building of this variety Austin’s land development code typically requires parking garages to be screened from the street by…
See the Stunning Design of an Expanded MACC in the Rainey Street District
No matter how many downtown Austin condo and apartment towers rise in the Rainey Street District — and the answer is “a lot” — the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) at 600 River Street will always be the most important building in this neighborhood. Designed by the late Mexican architect Teodoro González de León with help from Hispanic-owned local…
Shape the Future of a Downtown Public Space at Cypress and Shoal Creek
As part of its larger plan to improve trail connectivity and recreational spaces along Shoal Creek in downtown Austin and beyond, the Shoal Creek Conservancy along with the City of Austin and Downtown Austin Alliance hopes to create a new public destination in the heart of the area sometimes known as the Seaholm District, roughly centered around where West Third…
Downtown Austin’s Iconic Central Fire Station Considers a Careful Upgrade
Dating back to 1938, the New Deal-financed Austin Central Fire Station No. 1 sitting at 401 East Fifth Street on the northwest corner of Brush Square is an unlikely gem of downtown architecture, one of the few really striking examples of the Art Deco subset known as Moderne or Streamline Moderne in the city’s stock of public buildings — unfortunately, great vintage…