A few weeks ago, we asked our readers to weigh in on the name of the region in southeast Austin around East Riverside Drive and Lakeshore Boulevard. This was a fairly difficult question, as it turns out. 151 comments later, we’re still not sure. Various folks believe with authority that the area is called either…
Renovations Planned at Scholz Garten, Austin’s Oldest Restaurant
Scholz Garten, located in downtown Austin at 1607 San Jacinto Boulevard, isn’t just the oldest restaurant in the city — originally opened by German immigrant August Scholz in 1866, the establishment is also the oldest continuously operated German biergarten in the country, now owned by German-Texan heritage organization Austin Saengerrunde. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room…
Requiem for an Ugly Building: Ashbel Smith Hall at Block 71
I’ve said before that I never met a building I didn’t like. Even among the structures most hated by the general public — from the eyesores brought about by brutalism , to absurd postmodern self-parodies of buildings that aggressively confront the very definition of architecture — I’m usually able to dig up at least one charming element, a…
410 Uptown Office Tower Blurs Line Between Downtown and West Campus
According to new city filings, Austin’s latest tower could rise in an unlikely location. Documents from a utilities coordination commission meeting last week give us a first look at 410 Uptown, an office tower with a ground floor retail space planned at the corner of West 18th and San Antonio Streets. That’s just one block south…
Street Smarts: Deep Thoughts on I-35’s ‘Capital Express’ Redesign
Last week, we heard a surprising announcement from the Texas Department of Transportation and State Senator Kirk Watson regarding plans to significantly redesign Austin’s downtown stretch of Interstate 35, part of an $8 billion long-range plan — apparently dubbed Capital Express — intending to add two toll lanes to both sides of the highway all the way from Round Rock to…
Statesman Sale Shines Spotlight on South Central Waterfront’s Future
On Halloween earlier this week, we learned that Cox Media Group, owners of the Austin American-Statesman since 1976, have put the newspaper up for sale. It’s not a particularly spooky news item unless you’re a journalist concerned about the uncertain future of Austin’s paper of record, but it draws attention to another interesting possibility: the development of the…