Here’s a sad little song for you — the Alliance Children’s Garden, a high-concept playground project on more than two acres at Butler Metro Park that broke ground early last year, is finished. It’s actually been done for six months, but if you’ve got a pulse you know how we’ve spent those last six months and more —…
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Austin’s Travis Heights Neighborhood Headed For National Historic Status
The Travis Heights neighborhood of South Austin, one of the city’s more notable concentrations of historic domestic architecture, could attain its long-sought admission to the National Register of Historic Places by next year. The Texas Historical Commission’s State Board of Review unanimously approved the 353-acre district’s nomination to the federal register at a meeting last…
An Office Breaks New Ground for Infill on a Densifying West Fifth Street
Though limited in height and oddly packed with multi-story storage facilities for a major corridor literally seconds away from downtown, there’s a lot of room remaining for medium-density development along the stretch of West Fifth Street running west of North Lamar Boulevard — and a three-story office project breaking ground earlier this week from local developers Manifold Real…
On Downtown Austin’s West End, a Historic Building Stands in Its Own Way
The potential redevelopment of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Headquarters Building on the west end of downtown Austin into a residential tower by developers Stratus Properties and Chicago architects SCB presents an interesting situation to the City of Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission: what happens when the organization that originally built a historic building — and actually…
Downtown Austin’s New Water Fountains Are Nice Enough to Actually Use
Using a public drinking fountain is just about the last thing anybody wants to think about in the midst of a viral pandemic, but Austin’s increasingly hot weather makes a pretty good case for their existence on a longer-term scale — along with well-serviced public restrooms, they’re essential tools for building more equitable public spaces. Unless you…
West 12th Residential Tower Plan Brings 31 Floors to the Downtown Time Forgot
Barring a few notable exceptions, in terms of development action and overall height the region of Austin directly west of the Capitol could be considered “the downtown that time forgot” — despite being very much within the boundaries of downtown, convenient zoning limitations and other preservation-related protections keep this area pretty low to the ground, which is part of the…