People tend to make a couple of wild assumptions when anyone voices support for public investment in bicycling infrastructure. No, bike advocates do not necessarily want you to completely replace every single car trip in town with one powered by pedals. It’d be nuts to expect all the state workers who live in Buda to opt…
Good and Bad News on Block 185
Everyone wants to know what’s up with Block 185. It’s the final undeveloped parcel of the former Green Water Treatment Plant, situated at the convergence of the emerging Seaholm and 2nd Street Districts, and represents the final piece of the puzzle for an area that now includes the New Central Library, the Northshore apartments, the Austin Proper condo/hotel tower, and two office developments:…
Skybridges: Yes or No?
Downtown Austin’s getting two, maybe three skybridges in the near future, and many of my fellow urbanists aren’t too happy about it. The skybridges contemplated would connect hotels to the City of Austin Convention Center, creating a sort of hermetically sealed convention district that never meaningfully interacts with the street. These elevated pathways between buildings…
KRDB Mixed-Use Community Headed to East MLK Jr.
We’ve known for some time that local architects KRDB had eyes on a mixed-use project at East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Oakwood Cemetery. But I’ve recently heard from the firm that the building’s site plan is on the verge of approval, so let’s take a closer look at what’s in store. The project, if approved, is…
Rise Apartments Converting to Wyndham Vacation Property
Early this year, news broke that Rise on 8th, a 22-story multifamily apartment tower at 805 Nueces Street, was sold less than a month after its completion. 54 Madison Partners purchased the property from original developers Aspen Heights Partners with the rumored intent of converting the building’s units to timeshare-style vacation rentals. Now, new city filings for the property confirm that theory, revealing Wyndham Worldwide as…
308 Guadalupe, Downtown’s Next Tallest Tower?
Ever since Travis County abandoned its unpopular proposal to construct a new civil courthouse downtown at the city-owned 300 block of Guadalupe Street and announced its intent to sell the parcel off to a private developer, the rumor mill’s been running wild. Even before that, almost a decade ago, this site was slated to be the headquarters of Austin Museum…