Since 1984, the Mexic-Arte Museum has served Austin as the city’s official home for Mexican, Latino, and Latin American art — and it should be the most well-positioned museum in the city to showcase that art, having occupied an extremely visible location at the southeast corner of Congress Avenue and Fifth Street since 1988. But…
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700 River Apartment Tower Celebrates Topping Out in the Rainey Street District
The 43-story 700 River apartment tower now under construction at the corner of Rainey and River Streets in downtown’s perpetually exploding Rainey Street District announced its official topping out today, with the structure reaching its maximum height of 500 feet. This is a significant milestone for a neighborhood experiencing the densest concentration of simultaneous tower construction anywhere in Austin, with two other projects of…
Demolition Expected for Fifth and Lavaca Corner in Downtown Austin
The news this week that downtown ping pong bar Smash ATX had permanently closed at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Lavaca Streets didn’t come as a huge surprise to us considering the longstanding plans for a dual-branded Embassy Suites and Tempo by Hilton hotel with a combined 480 rooms in a 30-story tower at this site, but if…
Is This Downtown Austin’s Silliest Parking Lot?
Believe it or not, the flagship Whole Foods at Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard was once the center of gravity for much of downtown Austin’s daytime social life — you’d meet friends for brunch there and take visitors from out of town to gawk at the cheese displays. That sounds kind of silly now,…
Sticking a Camera Over the Fence at Duncan Park in Downtown Austin
Duncan Neighborhood Park is rounding the corner on its first phase of upgrades by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the most significant improvements planned in decades for this wildly underrated piece of downtown parkland just east of Shoal Creek between West Ninth and 10th Streets. It’s not just the park’s excellent skyline views we’re after — we are very bullish on…
Take a Closer Look at the Texas Capitol Complex Project’s Next Phase
You may have noticed there’s a couple of big holes in the ground over at the corner of 15th and Lavaca Streets in downtown Austin. They aren’t just digging those for fun, believe it or not! No, that’s the second phase of the Capitol Complex project, an effort by the Texas Facilities Commission to modernize the area directly…