According to permits filed with the city last week, a private party is seeking permission to open a temporary Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken restaurant, as made famous by AMC television dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, in a parking lot in downtown Austin near 122 West 5th Street. Unless some anonymous local entrepreneur…
West Campus Is The Envy of Austin’s New Urbanists
It’s easy to turn a blind eye to development in West Campus — after all, most of the buildings going up are designed for student housing, and serve little purpose to the general public. Lest we forget that West Campus is arguably the most walkable part of Austin, with daily goods retail and restaurants nicely intermixed with…
A Riverside Runs Through It: Projects Driving the Evolution of 78741
It’s easy to forget that East Austin’s current boom extends south of the lake. The traditionally underserved East Riverside area of town has rapidly gentrified over the last few years, and now thanks to the South Shore District and Lakeshore projects, upcoming Oracle campus, and countless other developments in various stages of realization, it appears the region is about to tip. Despite appearances, there’s more…
East Sixth: Mapping the Future of Austin’s Favorite Mile
There are only so many ways to say Austin’s development is heading eastward. Just drive down any street on the east side across from downtown and count the construction sites, and you’ll run out of fingers before you drive a dozen blocks. At the center of it all, East Sixth serves as the de facto gateway…
The Historical Markers of the Sixth Street Bar District, Mapped
Austin’s famous Sixth Street bar district, also known as “Dirty Sixth,” has more to offer than booze and tourists. Look past the party and you’ll find one of the city’s most historic districts, with historical markers on nearly every building. Most of the buildings in the area date back to the 1800s, when Sixth Street was an…
Tracing Thomas Shefelman’s Fingerprints on Austin’s Architecture
Thomas Shefelman, longtime Austin architect, died at 89 last December, but many buildings he assisted in designing are still standing across the city. Shefelman and his firm, Shefelman & Nix, also specialized in renovations to existing buildings, including projects for the Steven F. Austin Hotel and Norwood Tower. Here are a few examples of Shefelman’s striking modernist designs…