At 51 stories, the recently-announced 44 East Avenue project could soon become one of the tallest Austin condo towers built so far. Although a tower project at this address, located on the south end of the rapidly-developing Rainey Street District, has been anticipated for quite a while, the sheer size of the planned building is more than we…
After a Century of Snacking, Barton Springs’ Zilker Cafe Looks Forward
Swimming leads to snacking. That’s been a fact of life at Austin’s Barton Springs Pool for at least a century, with the first mention of concessions served to bathers at the spring-fed swimming pool — “hamburger and the like” — appearing in the Austin Statesman in 1918. But in 2016, the Zilker Cafe at Barton…
What’s on Our Watchlist This Week?
We often come across some fairly interesting business updates in the universe of downtown Austin and beyond — openings, closings, remodels, upcoming events, the installation of new vent hoods, and so forth — that are not quite robust enough to justify a full feature. Since we’re trying to keep everyone on the pulse of the…
A Field Guide to Austin’s Art Deco and Moderne Architecture
As part of our ongoing love affair with Virginia McAlester’s 1984 book, “A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture,” we’re occasionally taking a look at different architectural styles described in the book and hunting down good examples of them around Austin. Last time, we checked out Tudor architecture, which worked out great,…
Demolition Starts at 91 Red River This Month, Clearing Site for 30-Story Tower
The folks at Endeavor Real Estate Group aren’t wasting any time on the 30-story mixed-use tower planned at 91 Red River Street. The building, called Red River Tower in some documents, will bring 328 apartments, three floors of office space, and ground-level retail to the growing Rainey Street District — and demolition clearing the .74-acre site for the tower’s construction begins…
In Loving Memory: Downtown Austin’s ‘Rather Tawdry’ Alamo Hotel
Earlier this week, a demolition permit was issued by the city for the Extended Stay America building at 600 Guadalupe Street in downtown Austin. Despite its central location, this fenced-off, unremarkable low-rise structure was nearly identical to what you might find on the side of a highway anywhere else in America, and unless you were…