The current view from underneath the Third Street pedestrian bridge (on the left) and its neighboring wooden, ancient railroad trestle (on the right), both crossing over Shoal Creek. Image: Downtown Austin Alliance
Maybe some of you people are in much better shape than me, but jogging with a mask on really sucks. Exercise and other outdoor recreation is technically permitted during the time of coronavirus according to the city’s current guidelines — and plenty of stir-crazy people, perhaps too many at once, are enjoying this — but the combination of face-covering regulations and the general discouragement of large social gatherings makes Austin’s public spaces a fairly solitary affair for the moment. You can go to the park, but you still kind of miss it, if that makes any sense.
Keeping that in mind, it would be really nice to look forward to something, and that’s thankfully where the Shoal Creek Conservancy’s head is at. As part of the much larger Shoal Creek Trail Plan the nonprofit released back in 2018 — which outlines a vision for trail connectivity and other revitalization along Shoal Creek running from the west end of downtown Austin all the way up past U.S. 183 — there’s a specific plan for a new project called Cypress & Shoal Creek. Judging by what we’ve seen of its features so far, if this development were already complete it would rank among the city’s most interesting outdoor gathering places downtown, and we’d all be missing it while staying at home. Below is a map with its features labeled:
Click for a larger view. Image: Downtown Austin Alliance
Imagined as a partnership between the Conservancy, the Downtown Austin Alliance, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, and the City of Austin, Cypress & Shoal Creek proposes a sort of connected gateway to downtown, sitting adjacent to many of its most impressive recent developments like the Seaholm District and new Central Library. The project would create a series of linked public plazas and other improvements around where Third Street (once known as Cypress Street, hence the name) crosses over Shoal Creek in the form of a pedestrian bridge.
Looking north at the Third Street trestle, the heart of the Cypress & Shoal Creek project. Image: Downtown Austin Alliance
Improving the connection between the Hike-and-Bike and Shoal Creek Trails is a big priority here, along with the rehabilitation of a nearly century-old wooden railroad trestle, which runs parallel to the Third Street pedestrian bridge over the creek, into a new park and scenic overlook — Austin’s own little High Line of sorts.
The view looking east into downtown Austin from the Third Street rail trestle, which isn’t very safe to stand on unless you’re an intrepid photographer with permission to do so, or drunk enough to not value your life. Image: Downtown Austin Alliance
With the coronavirus on everyone’s mind, the traditional community engagement playbook goes out the window — instead of stakeholder meetings and other in-person events, the Conservancy would like residents to engage with them in detail using an online survey and a pretty fun annotatable project map. Take a look at both below or at this link, and add your comments wherever something grabs you:
We’re currently at the very beginning of this project’s engagement process, with more renderings of the potential space and the release of a final design expected by the end of the year. It might seem like a strange time to think about the future of downtown, with the potential nationwide economic impact of the virus or its effect on local development not yet entirely clear — but in a recession, city-partnered public projects like Cypress & Shoal Creek might still have a shot. We’re all going to want some new spots to enjoy the outdoors together whenever life gets slightly normal again.
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