The Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross District is the newest of Austin’s eight local historic districts, its designation approved by City Council back in September 2020 — so you could say it’s high time for this neighborhood to do a victory lap. That’s the perspective of the nonprofit Preservation Austin, which has chosen this collection of historic midcentury homes for its…
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The Travis Apartment Tower Project Finally Stirs to Life in the Rainey District
The still-uncertain impact of the last year’s pandemic on many of the tower projects previously announced for downtown Austin has us watching several sites around town with more anxiety than usual, and the Travis at 80 Red River Street was near the top of our list for towers we weren’t quite sure would survive. But in this…
What’s Missing from the Conversation about Reinstating Austin’s Camping Ban
The City of Austin currently owns 1,765 properties totaling nearly 14,000 acres. 1,148 of those properties have no improvements. A 2020 Point In Time count from ECHO reveals the number of people sleeping unsheltered that night was at least 1,574. Why hasn’t the City of Austin endeavored to create a joint venture with an operator to utilize a fraction of…
Imagining Homeless Housing at Austin’s Vacant City-Owned Home Depot
Since 2008, the City of Austin has owned the approximately 13.7-acre empty former Home Depot store on East St. Johns Avenue near the interchange of Interstate 35 and Highway 183 in the St. John neighborhood. At the time, the city hoped to use the site for a courthouse or police station, but this never materialized — and more than a decade later that…
Developments Planned at Former Austin Legends Dart Bowl and Threadgill’s
Nine months after the pandemic’s economic impact permanently shuttered legendary local bowling alley Dart Bowl with more than 60 years of business under its belt, its owners are seeking to develop an apartment complex atop the 4.14-acre property at 5700 Grover Avenue in the Brentwood neighborhood of North Central Austin — which should presumably help the family partnership behind…
This Photo Has Everything You Need To Know About Sixth Street in the 1970s
The stretch of Sixth Street running east of Congress Avenue in downtown Austin has enjoyed many colorful lives over the 180-odd years since the city’s founding — periods of boom and bust motivated by surrounding growth and changing transportation systems have taken this street from an enclave of minority-friendly immigrant-owned retail stores all the way to the…