PARK(ing) Day is an annual event where metered parking spaces are temporarily transformed by the public into pocket parks or other open space, as a demonstration of the power of public spaces in urban design. One or two parking spots, when temporarily adapted, can “activate” streetscapes on the human level and create more inviting spaces for everyone,…
36-Story Office Tower Planned Downtown at UT-Owned Block 71 Site
Block 71, a 1.75-acre downtown site owned by the University of Texas and bordered by West Seventh, Colorado, West Sixth and Lavaca Streets, was home to one of the university’s administrative offices until the completion of the school’s new office building at 210 West Seventh Street. Since 2015, UT sought plans from developers for an office tower…
Project Catalyst, Oracle’s East Riverside Neighbor, Might Be the Next Domain
We’re mere months away from the completion of Oracle’s corporate campus on South Lakeshore Boulevard, and as the East Riverside corridor gentrifies, there’s been some concern about the area’s relative lack of retail options in comparison with the massive boom in multifamily housing stretching nearly to the airport. As I touched on earlier this year, it’s a gap many developers are probably…
Convention Center Bombshell
Previously, I have been skeptical of a convention center expansion. As a member of the Visitor Impact Task Force, I came around to a positive recommendation after the Task Force recommended ways to make expansion a positive for the city: Incorporating expansion as part of a larger tower to share costs and add activity when the convention center isn’t being used. Keeping…
Austin’s Rich History of Getting Mad at Skyscrapers Begins At Norwood Tower
A few months back, downtown Austin’s changing skyline went viral. A photographic comparison from roughly the same vantage point demonstrating the building boom over the past decade bounced around Twitter and Facebook and Reddit for several weeks, often accompanied by sneers and jeers from cats who pined for those sunny slopes of ten years ago. Never mind…
Welcome to Bizarro Austin
There’s a neighborhood in central Austin that everybody knows but only its true students really understand. It’s a place where the normal laws of neighborhoods (or zoning ordinances at least) don’t apply. A place where up is down, zig is zag, and 40-minutes cursing at bumper-to-bumper traffic on MoPac is 15 minutes humming with your…