Our friends at the Waller Creek Conservancy announced details today for Creek Show 2019, the sixth annual nighttime exhibition of lighted art installations by local design firms on Waller Creek. Creek Show’s not just a good opportunity to see some cool art, but also a demonstration of Waller Creek’s potential as a downtown amenity — so it’s a…
Downtown Austin’s Sabine Street Promenade is Finally Happening
After languishing in Austin’s own version of “development hell” for roughly a decade, the Sabine Street Promenade is under construction even as we speak. To be exact, it’s been under construction for at least two months now — we’ve walked past this site like three times and assumed someone else had already noted this long-awaited bit of downtown…
It’s Toilet Time in Downtown Austin, With Three New Public Restrooms on the Way
After three years of planning and over one year of data-gathering (hey, don’t laugh) from a migrating temporary restroom, the City of Austin is ready to put down roots, with two permanent public restroom installations headed downtown this November and a third on the way by January 2020. Thanks to recent city utility filings and some assistance from…
At Austin Energy’s New Rainey Street Substation, ‘Modern’ Is the Look
The community engagement process for the design of a new downtown electrical substation at 55 East Avenue on the edge of the Rainey Street District has reached a conclusion — of the three themes put to a vote a couple of months ago, Austin Energy announced yesterday that the “modern” design option for screening the facility eventually won out. Here’s…
On Island Time at WatersMark, the Weirdest Austin Condo Tower Never Built
Explosive growth, which would eventually come to define Austin despite storied resistance from its slacker set, really arrived at the dawn of the 1980s. That decade saw the development of a dozen buildings over 15 floors in height in the downtown area alone, and though Austin didn’t experience the stereotypical excess of the era compared to either…
99 Trinity Site Faces Foreclosure
It’s been six years since the announcement of a tower project at 99 Trinity Street in downtown Austin, but landowner WC 1st and Trinity LP has another problem on its hands besides the residential development’s seemingly complete lack of progress — an imminent threat of foreclosure by its lender. Warehouses have occupied the southeast corner…