Image: Austin History Center / James Rambin
This morning, the Texas Facilities Commission celebrated the groundbreaking for Phase II of its Capitol Complex Project, the next step of a planning effort by the State of Texas to reshape its considerable land holdings north of the Capitol grounds with additional office space for state employees, a central pedestrian plaza, and thousands of underground parking spaces replacing a number of block-sized surface lots.
Phase Two of the Texas Capitol Complex Project Takes Shape Downtown
It’s no secret that the area north of the Capitol constitutes a sort of dead zone immune from the rest of downtown’s buzz — its offices and parking are almost fully cleared out after quitting time, and the region feels downright post-apocalyptic on weekends. What’s less obvious to a casual observer of this district, even as the state works to rebuild its image, is that it sits on the remains of a vibrant neighborhood that once contained hundreds of buildings. The density of the area was roughly the same as most of downtown at the time, a mix of single-family homes, multi-story apartment houses, churches, and small businesses — all of which were demolished starting in the late 1950s as part of master planning efforts for a unified state office complex.
An aerial view of the Capitol and its adjacent northern neighborhood taken in 1950. Notable demolished buildings visible here include the original St. Martin’s Lutheran Church and the Normandie Arms apartments. Image: Austin History Center
During the 1940s and ‘50s, state employees were spread between a patchwork of leased office spaces across downtown, which hindered interdepartmental collaboration and represented a significant expense to the government. The precursor to the Texas Facilities Commission, known then as the State Building Commission, created a plan for consolidated state facilities in 1956 with the help of urban planner Harold F. Wise, which included the demolition of the neighborhood north of the Capitol to make room for a complex of office buildings and parking. Along with the perceived financial efficiency of full state ownership of the land, ample parking was a cornerstone of the plan, which noted that roughly 60 percent of state employees drove their own cars to work downtown at the time.
An illustration from the 1956 master plan for the Capitol Complex imagines a collection of identical state office buildings lined up around a central mall — an ambitious design that probably would have looked something like Albany’s Empire State Plaza, but was ultimately never realized. Image: Harold F. Wise and Associates / Texas Facilities Commission
The State of Texas announced a policy of fairness and equal treatment of all landowners in its acquisition of sites for the Supreme Court Building and State Office Building, and expansion of the Capitol Campus for present and future public needs. It secured detailed statements of the fair market value of each tract of land, prepared by professional appraisers who had no interest in helping the state drive a bargain or helping any individual get too much for a piece of property. The Building Commission declared it will deal with all landowners on an equal basis. It will not attempt to buy any of the tracts below the appraisal, nor will it trade with any owner to give him a better deal than the others.
. . . The campus and building program are of tremendous value to Austin. They will create new property values in themselves, enhance the city’s appearance, provide far better parking and working facilities for those who serve the state. They are important to the state, to assure better and more efficient handling of its vast administrative business.
— The Austin American, March 23, 1956
Although the grand vision of the 1956 plan was never fully realized, starting in 1959 the state began developing a number of new office buildings inside the 20-block area located directly north of the Capitol grounds all the way to MLK Jr. Boulevard, bound by Lavaca Street to the west and San Jacinto Boulevard to the east. Though the state’s development would ultimately expand beyond these boundaries, this central region saw the earliest and most drastic transformation.
The 1884 St. Martin’s Lutheran Church was demolished in 1959 to make way for office construction at the Capitol Complex, but rebuilt elsewhere in 1960. Image: Austin History Center
Clearing space for the new structures and their parking required the Building Commission to individually purchase and tear down countless buildings throughout the region. An analysis of Sanborn fire insurance maps from this period indicates that the 20-block area directly north of the Capitol alone contained approximately 140 single-family homes and at least 50 small apartment buildings or rooming houses, together representing untold hundreds of dwelling units demolished.
The Building Commission has notified operators of a drug store and cafe just north of the Capitol to vacate by March 1.
— The Austin American, December 30, 1959
By the 1970s, aerial views of this region show how thoroughly the neighborhood north of the Capitol was slowly erased — only a handful of the original buildings in this 20-block area survived past the 1980s, including the 1882 Gethsemane Lutheran Church and a few neighboring buildings located near the corner of 16th Street and Congress Avenue. What’s truly remarkable about the image comparison below is that at least half of this formerly thriving downtown neighborhood was converted by the state into surface parking lots, many of which remained for 50 years or more:
Aerial views of the region directly north of the Capitol grounds, taken from the same perspective in 1952 and 1973 and showing the replacement of the neighborhood in this area with state office buildings and surface parking lots. Images: U.S. Geological Survey
Additional state buildings were added at a gradual pace into the early 2000s, with the start of construction on the new Capitol Complex plan in 2017 marking a fresh direction for the region, highlighting an increased focus on walkability, density, and underground parking. Even as the state works to bring a slight sense of urbanism to its corner of the city, it’s hard not to wonder how different downtown might look if the neighborhoods demolished for this and other urban renewal-style planning efforts had survived into the present. After the original master plan for the Capitol Complex was released to the public in 1956, local bank president Fred Morse wrote an oddly prescient guest column in the Austin American:
We note that the State plans to finally absorb all land up to Nineteenth Street between Lavaca and San Jacinto . . . Even growing as fast as we are we cannot see how we can ever need all that land. The State employees would have to use shuttle cars or trains to go from one end of the Capitol campus to the other. It might be better planning to go “up” rather than “out.” A beautiful Capitol civic center would be ideal for our fine city but it does seem that spreading it out from Eleventh to Nineteenth is taking up too much of the town.
— The Austin American, July 1, 1956
A photo taken in 1937 from the UT Tower, showing the neighborhood north of the Texas Capitol that would later be demolished for state offices starting in the late 1950s. Image: Austin History Center
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