American literary theorist Kenneth Burke famously described the nature of mankind as “rotten with perfection,” so obsessed with defining the “proper” names for everything around us that we lose any ability to see outside of the hierarchies we’ve created. I’ve never seen this observation demonstrated faster than when I use vague terminology to describe overlapping…
It’s Mueller Time, Baby!
Austin’s Robert Mueller Municipal Airport closed in 1999. The Mueller planned unit development that would transform the site’s 700 acres into a new neighborhood and city district broke ground in 2007. Time flies, huh? Now that it’s 10 years later, what’s going on at Mueller? The district isn’t completely finished, but it’s certainly well on…
West Campus Makes Way for High Density Developments
There is no shortage lately of real estate investors willing to bet on West Campus, and the demand for upscale student housing is about to bring another high-density project to Rio Grande Street. Scannell Development Company, operating as Scannell Properties , is an Indianapolis company proposing a seven-story building at 2100 Rio Grande Street, which is directly…
Texas Limits On Tree Regulation Might Accomplish What CodeNEXT Won’t
You’ve probably heard about CodeNEXT. You’ve likely also heard about Gov. Greg Abbott wanting to limit Texas cities’ ability to regulate trees on private property. Pushback from neighborhood protectionists is already beginning to squander the hope that CodeNEXT could materially increase density in Central Austin. So here’s my hypothesis: the State of Texas prohibiting Austin from regulating tree removal will be more impactful…
What’s Next for Shoal Creek? 12 Improvements to Expect
If you’ve followed the ongoing saga of downtown for a few decades, you might be suffering from Shoal Creek Fatigue. Since the Civilian Conservation Corps developed formal trails along the waterway in the 1930s, we’ve seen plans for improvements to all or part of the Shoal Creek corridor in 1976, 1998, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016,…
Watch These Austin Time-Lapse Videos and Pretend It’s Still the Weekend
Time-lapse photography is a great way to see a city from a new perspective — we even made our own the other day! If you’re still in denial about the long holiday weekend being over, just take a minute to get lost with these videos. View this post…