Love it or hate it, you’ve got to admit that the Independent, perhaps better known as Austin’s “Jenga Tower,” is boldly designed. This 58-story building currently under construction in what’s now known as downtown’s Market District will be the tallest tower in the city — at least for a few years until the 850-foot tower planned at 600 Guadalupe gets off…
Blink and You’ll Miss Austin’s Smallest Neighborhood Park
The intersection of Enfield Road, Baylor Street, and Parkway near Castle Hill in Old West Austin wasn’t much to look at until the city built a pedestrian crossing there earlier this year. The crossing included a central island, known variously as a “safety island or “refuge island” — a street design feature intended to increase pedestrian safety…
You Are Here: Lakeshore
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. https://www.facebook.com/towersdotnet/photos/a.1689164341334086.1073741828.1644472315803289/1942519319331919 151 comments later, we’re still not sure. Various folks believe with authority that the area is called…
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…