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
-
$499,000
1301 Chicon Street #203
Austin, TX -
$3,200
2710 Canterbury Street #2
Austin, TX -
$615,000
800 Embassy Drive #434
Austin, TX -
$749,900
1121 Prospect Avenue #2
Austin, TX -
$699,000
1183 Oakgrove Avenue #2
Austin, TX -
$4,500,000
1205 - 1209 1/2 Garden Street
Austin, TX -
$575,000
1322 E 12th Street #204
Austin, TX -
$425,000
1208 Chestnut Avenue
Austin, TX -
$439,900
800 Embassy Drive #209
Austin, TX -
$1,000,000
2101 E 14th Street
Austin, TX -
$699,900
2919 E 16th Street
Austin, TX -
$2,200
1413 B Holly Street
Austin, TX -
$4,900
800 Embassy Drive #225
Austin, TX -
$415,000
3101 Govalle Avenue #120
Austin, TX -
$3,200
105 Elkhart Street
Austin, TX -
$2,650
3111 E 13th Street #A
Austin, TX -
$1,925
2124 E 6th Street #309
Austin, TX -
$4,195
1315 Comal Street
Austin, TX -
$3,600
4611 Glissman Road
Austin, TX -
$840,000
1118 3/4 GUNTER Street
Austin, TX -
$2,500
1601 E 5th Street #211
Austin, TX -
$475,000
2235 E 6th Street #319
Austin, TX -
$349,900
807 E 14th Street #202
Austin, TX -
$1,290,000
2811 E 14th Street
Austin, TX -
$2,500
1102 Cherico Street
Austin, TX
-
$499,000Lot Size3,921 sqft
Home Size860 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$3,200Lot Size4,139 sqft
Home Size1,091 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$615,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,112 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$749,900Lot Size6,534 sqft
Home Size970 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$699,000Lot Size6,622 sqft
Home Size995 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$4,500,000Lot Size18,688 sqft
Home Size4,224 sqft
Beds8 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
$575,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,170 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$425,000Lot Size2,048 sqft
Home Size551 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$439,900Lot SizeN/A
Home Size866 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,000,000Lot Size2,832 sqft
Home Size1,904 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$699,900Lot Size6,230 sqft
Home Size1,396 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$2,200Lot Size6,578 sqft
Home Size892 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$4,900Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,585 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$415,000Lot Size523 sqft
Home Size746 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$3,200Lot Size1,743 sqft
Home Size964 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$2,650Lot Size7,493 sqft
Home Size2,400 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,925Lot Size567 sqft
Home Size828 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$4,195Lot Size5,620 sqft
Home Size2,381 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$3,600Lot Size1,525 sqft
Home Size1,432 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$840,000Lot Size9,540 sqft
Home Size2,552 sqft
Beds6 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$2,500Lot Size1,482 sqft
Home Size1,225 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths2 Baths
-
$475,000Lot Size872 sqft
Home Size1,003 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths2 Baths
-
$349,900Lot Size959 sqft
Home Size759 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,290,000Lot Size4,836 sqft
Home Size2,273 sqft
Beds5 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
$2,500Lot Size5,576 sqft
Home Size1,185 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
Leave a Reply