Though ground hasn’t even broken on the project, it’s still been a wild ride for the building planned by Cousins Properties, Ironwood Real Estate, and Riverside Resources at 300 Colorado Street in downtown Austin. What once was described as a 44-story residential tower is now a 31-story office tower, with its 377,500 square feet of office space entirely leased to oil and gas drilling firm Parsley Energy….
Take a Look at Three Concepts for a Redesigned Brush Square
Between the Seaholm Waterfront, Walter E. Long Park, and Austin Energy’s new downtown substation, it feels like we’re smack in the middle of master plan season. Next up on the list is Brush Square, one of downtown’s three remaining historic public squares — the other two are Republic Square and Wooldridge Square, also in varying stages of improvement themselves. The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, along with…
In Loving Memory: Downtown Austin’s ‘Golden Mirror’
“At mid-morning one day last week, driving west of Congress on Sixth Street was like suddenly moving into a dream world,” wrote Austin American-Statesman columnist Inez C. Jeffery on November 4, 1973. “The morning sun was shining on the gold wall of the new American Bank building, and the reflection became a path of gold…
Draining Lake Walter E. Long for a Golf Course Is a Breathtakingly Stupid Idea
Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park, located near the eastern edge of the city limits, is the largest park in Austin — and it’s not even close. I mean, just look at this: But in true Austin form, we’ve been keeping things weird by doing almost nothing to utilize these thousands of acres of land, including the 1,165-acre lake in the…
Mixed-Use Expansion Planned at State Employees Retirement System Offices
The Employees Retirement System of Texas occupies one of the more creatively-designed buildings in the Texas Capitol Complex at 200 East 18th Street, but the agency seems to have outgrown its home, with plans for a major expansion underway. The main building, a five-story 1979 structure shaped like a Chinese wood puzzle, will remain as the agency’s main office. However, a much shorter…
With Your Input, Austin Energy’s Downtown Substation Won’t Suck
Remember Austin Energy’s plans for a new downtown substation at 55 East Avenue? The project’s still a couple of years out from breaking ground — dig the timeline below, champ — but the city’s utility provider is already hard at work on preliminary concepts for the station, and held the first of several community engagement meetings last night. If this type of…