Image: The Trail Foundation
The East Austin park improvement initiative formerly known as Holly Point but now sporting the broader (but slightly less memorable) label of Holly Project represents the first step towards upgrading the large tract of shoreline city parkland on the north banks of Lady Bird Lake commonly referred to as Holly Shores.
This area, its size exceeding a whopping 90 acres and containing individual parks including Edward Rendon Sr. Park at Festival Beach, Fiesta Gardens, the Manuel And Robert Donley Pocket Park, and Metz Park, will also eventually contain an additional nine acres of parkland on the site of the decommissioned Holly Power Plant.
The area currently being upgraded by the Holly Project is the peninsula containing the baseball fields directly to the right of the bridge seen at the center of the image, which carries the Hike-and-Bike Trail over the park’s lagoon area. Image: Bing Maps
The vision for improving the long-neglected Holly Shores region into one of Austin’s premiere downtown and downtown-adjacent parks is a long time coming, with the city allocating funds for the master plan’s initial conception a solid decade ago — and with the help of the Trail Foundation nonprofit and its snazzy new Corgan Canopy Fund, the first piece of the puzzle is almost in sight, with the project possibly entering the construction planning and actual permitting stage by mid-2020.
A view of some of the Holly Project area, looking roughly southwest towards the water.
The Holly Project, now in its design review and community engagement phase, will create an ADA-accessible realignment of the Hike-and-Bike Trail along the waterfront in this area (you can see in the above image that the trail’s currently set back pretty far from the water), build additional recreation spaces, and restore the wetland habitat along the shoreline itself. At a community engagement meeting held last weekend, the Trail Foundation and Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department presented two design options for the Holly Project to the public for review, and that means you folks get to take a look at them too and decide which one tickles your fancy and so forth.
Holly Project: Concept A
Click for a larger view. Image: The Trail Foundation
In addition to a scenic overlook space at the southwestern tip of the peninsula, you’ll notice another focal point of this plan is the cluster of picnic tables on a deck installed around one of the area’s large oak trees. Pay attention to these two features, because they’re the ones that get a different spin in Concept B. If you squint at the map above, you’ll see a black arrow indicating the viewpoint of the concept sketch below, which might be the single most helpful thing included here:
Image: The Trail Foundation
Hey, not bad! We wish we could get a better view of the scenic overlook area or central shade garden, but maybe that comes later. Onward to Concept B!
Holly Project: Concept B
Image: The Trail Foundation
The two big changes in Concept B are the feature at the tip of the peninsula and the shade garden/picnic table space in the center. Instead of a scenic overlook, here we’ve got a stone pergola, a word that’s very fun to say and like a lot of fun words is derived from Latin, in this case the noun pergula, which depending on context can refer to a booth, hut, arbor, overhanging roof, or oddly enough, a brothel. Anyway, fun word.
The second major difference in this configuration is the layout of its central shade garden — instead of circling its picnic tables on a deck around a single tree, it distributes them throughout the grove and does away with the deck entirely. Remember to look for the small black arrow on the above map so you can tell the perspective of the sketch below, but it’s pretty obvious what we’re looking at here:
Image: The Trail Foundation
The foundation also included a second, more detailed concept sketch for the pergola structure seen in the sketch above — plus a human for scale:
Image: The Trail Foundation
You’ll notice that neither of these concepts do anything to threaten the existing baseball fields at the site — so please don’t get mad and email us about that. Instead, channel that energy towards filling out the Trail Foundation’s brief survey on the project’s design and let them know which of these two concepts you prefer. We’re torn on a favorite, since we love the pergola from Concept B most of all but also think the elevated deck in the shade garden from Concept A is pretty cool. Kinda makes you wonder, why not do both? That’s what the survey’s for, partner.
East Austin Homes For Sale
-
$1,999,995
1501 Canterbury Street
Austin, TX -
$735,000
1407 Coleto Street
Austin, TX -
$675,000
2220 Webberville Road #305
Austin, TX -
$799,000
2913 Govalle Avenue #B
Austin, TX -
$825,000
1309 Concho Street #B
Austin, TX -
$570,000
1707 Ulit Avenue
Austin, TX -
$790,000
1129 Leona Street
Austin, TX -
$630,000
2403 Bryan Street
Austin, TX -
$1,500,000
1304 Poquito Street
Austin, TX -
$689,000
1800 Clifford Avenue
Austin, TX -
$499,000
1903 College Row
Austin, TX -
$750,000
1608 Garden Street
Austin, TX -
$675,000
2705 E 3rd Street
Austin, TX -
$799,999
1608 Canterbury Street
Austin, TX -
$860,000
1914 E 8th Street
Austin, TX -
$420,000
1162 Holmes
Austin, TX -
$950,000
1175 Navasota Street
Austin, TX -
$700,000
1513 E 2nd Street #B
Austin, TX -
$1,349,990
900 E 13th Street
Austin, TX -
$499,990
2517 E 4th Street
Austin, TX -
$465,000
1708 Garden Street #2
Austin, TX -
$1,000,000
1008 Gullett Street
Austin, TX -
$750,000
1202 E 8th Street
Austin, TX -
$594,990
2403-2 E 8th Street
Austin, TX -
$894,990
2403-1 E 8th Street
Austin, TX
-
$1,999,995Lot Size5,663 sqft
Home Size2,328 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
$735,000Lot Size3,050 sqft
Home Size1,116 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$675,000Lot Size5,663 sqft
Home Size1,399 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$799,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size1,860 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$825,000Lot Size4,356 sqft
Home Size1,826 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$570,000Lot Size6,099 sqft
Home Size2,880 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths6 Baths
-
$790,000Lot Size5,228 sqft
Home Size1,452 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$630,000Lot Size5,663 sqft
Home Size924 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,500,000Lot Size4,356 sqft
Home Size2,759 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$689,000Lot Size10,019 sqft
Home Size1,518 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$499,000Lot Size4,792 sqft
Home Size486 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$750,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size1,467 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$675,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size1,902 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$799,999Lot Size9,148 sqft
Home Size1,410 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$860,000Lot Size5,663 sqft
Home Size528 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$420,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size910 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$950,000Lot Size11,326 sqft
Home Size768 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$700,000Lot Size3,050 sqft
Home Size1,305 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,349,990Lot Size4,792 sqft
Home Size2,290 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$499,990Lot Size5,228 sqft
Home Size1,430 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$465,000Lot Size3,485 sqft
Home Size1,000 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,000,000Lot Size10,890 sqft
Home Size1,973 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$750,000Lot Size3,485 sqft
Home Size902 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$594,990Lot Size10,890 sqft
Home Size872 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$894,990Lot Size3,050 sqft
Home Size1,838 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths4 Baths
Leave a Reply