Music Hall redevelopment — Third + Shoal — set for September construction start News that the Austin Music Hall was going to be obliterated to make way for a 30-story office tower with ground floor retail and onsite parking made a huge splash in 2015. In March permits were filed for site demolition to begin, and Austin Towers’…
Tactical Urbanism in Austin
Calling civic scenesters and philanthropic rabble rousers. The national urban planning and design advocacy firm Street Plans Collaborative is setting its sights on Austin to promote “tactical urbanism”. For the uninitiated, think of tactical urbanism as guerrilla gardening, pop-up crosswalks, and other lo-fi, citizen-driven projects aimed at drawing attention to streetscapes that could benefit from long-term improvements. The…
Roundup: More downtown Austin development yet to come in 2017
A new wave of construction projects are rolling towards groundbreaking in the heart of downtown Austin, including a new development on W. Sixth so far kept secret, and a project targeting Chinese investors. Town Lake Lofts (neé North Shore Lofts) Back in 2013, I wrote about a small project in the southeast tip of the…
Oracle moving fast to start construction in Austin
It has been almost 5 months since tech giant Oracle announced a major investment in the East Riverside Corridor . The company is putting the pedal to the metal, already submitting detailed site plans to the City, the first step towards breaking on 560,000-square-foot campus. The reason it is able to move so fast as that the Oracle’s future home was conceived as a turnkey…
Hotel Magdalena : Liz Lambert’s Next Project
All of Liz Lambert’s chic hotels on South Congress Avenue are named after saints. San Jose. Saint Cecilia. Lambert’s upcoming creation — Hotel Magdalena — is named after Mary Magdalene, and is looking to be the grandest of them all. This new five-story boutique hotel and residences will sit just off South Congress, clocking in…
Take A Virtual Ride on I-35 “Cut & Cap” Plan
I’ve been a proponent of the “cut & cap” plan for burying I-35, and reconnecting Austin , ever since Sinclair Black began sharing the concept a couple (few?) years back. To see how well the “cut & cap” design works, we need look no further than Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park , which sits atop the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Below are six…