Rainey Street is probably Austin’s most interesting urban planning experiment. The starting gun for the area’s rapid transformation was a 2005 rezoning of what used to be a working-class neighborhood of single-family homes, allowing commercial projects like bars and multifamily developments to rise. Now, the Rainey Street area is practically unrecognizable from its past life, and despite its…
The Downtown Austin Alliance’s Vision Survey Needs Your Hottest Takes
Our friends over at the Downtown Austin Alliance are conducting a survey of Austinites as part of what they’re calling a “Downtown Vision & Action Plan.” The organization uses community input from surveys along these lines to research improvements for downtown issues like parking shortages, so they’ll probably appreciate your hot takes more than random folks on the street. I’ll let them explain:…
Gensler’s 600 Guadalupe Tower Might Not Be Blue, Thank God
Ever noticed how like, every new tower announced downtown is blue? If it’s not solid blue, it’s beige with blue accents or something. I’m no expert, but there’s apparently a good reason for this: Blue and green glass are the most energy efficient which is why it’s all we use. Difficult to satisfy energy code with other colors. —…
Spotted: Austin’s PARK(ing) Day Makes Parking Spaces Public on Congress
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…