From an urban planning perspective, the Rainey Street District is one of Austin's weirder locales. A small neighborhood of narrow streets and single-family homes, effectively annexed into downtown by the construction of an interstate highway and later upzoned to allow infill development at the skyscraper scale, the Rainey area now stands as the poster child for downtown Austin ...
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Here’s a Closer Look at Downtown’s Drake Bridge Commons Project
The bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake has held the official title of the "Drake Bridge" for 63 years of its 65-year existence -- in other words, not exactly breaking news. Still, I'd bet my life that a vast majority of Austinites have no idea this is the case, perhaps even many of the people who were actually alive during the mayoral term of William Sherman ...
South Lamar’s Dead Taco Cabana Rides Again, With a Hotel and Condos on Deck
Everything old is new again at the southeast corner of South Lamar Boulevard and West Riverside Drive, as a long-delayed project perhaps best known for irritating its neighbors and not being built for years finally springs into action once more. That's at least the impression recent city filings give us regarding the 0.93-acre property at 211 South Lamar Boulevard, ...
At Fifth and Nueces, Downtown’s Next Tower Is Only a Matter of Time
A two-story building in downtown Austin's curious agglomeration of low-rise regional banks might do a little growing in the near future, judging by city development filings from earlier this month. A site plan application dating back to April 10 indicates the building at 600 West Fifth Street -- currently home to Horizon Bank and a fairly substantial parking lot for the ...
At a Shuttered East Side Barbershop, Five Floors of Apartments May Fit Fine
A five-story apartment building could soon rise atop the site of a former East Austin barbershop, per recent city filings. Located on a roughly .22-acre assembly that includes 1812 and 1814 East Sixth Street, both addresses are now owned by corporate entities connected with local design and construction firm Novium Group. Site plan proposals filed last week by ...