When a fire destroyed Rio Grande Street bakery and restaurant Texas French Bread back in January, the future of this longtime local business didn’t seem particularly sunny . Owner Murph Willcott and his wife Carissa Ries, devastated at the loss of the nearly century-old building at this site occupied by their business since 1986, weren’t sure what a path forward for their…
78705
Can Austin Take Back the Drag?
West Campus isn’t downtown Austin, but downtown Austin could learn a thing or two from West Campus. This student-populated neighborhood directly west of the University of Texas is sort of like the city’s own little laboratory for urban design, and though it’s generally outside this blog’s area of coverage, the vertical expansion of this district over the course of the last decade…
Kingsbury Commons Project Celebrates Groundbreaking at Pease Park
A groundbreaking ceremony this morning at Austin’s Pease Park marks the start of work on Kingsbury Commons, a roughly 10-acre area at the south entrance of the park, which contains 84 total acres of green space following North Lamar Boulevard between West 15th and West 31st Streets. The Kingsbury improvements — which include multiple playground areas including…
What’s the Worst Intersection in Austin?
For such a simple question, we’ve heard endless possible answers, so we’d like to ask our readers. Click here to fill out our survey, or use the embedded form below: (function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type=”text/javascript”,c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=[“https:”===location.protocol?”https://”:”http://”,”widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgdwPZmV_2FAEs9sr8CUqTZNE6Upgi3u6zbvkQAnc1P5CWRv.js”].join(“”),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,”script”,”smcx-sdk”); We’re mostly interested in troublesome intersections in the central city, like downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods, but we’re sure there’s plenty out there either way. A lot of factors are…
Central Austin’s Concordia Redevelopment Finally Filling Its Gaps
The planned unit development (PUD) agreement between developers and the city for the redevelopment of Concordia University’s 22-acre former campus, located on the west side of I-35 between East 32nd Street and Concordia Avenue, passed all the way back in 2007. But a successful deal doesn’t plunk down buildings overnight, especially when its master developers are imprisoned for bank fraud — and…
Meet Kingsbury Commons, a 13-Acre Transformation at Austin’s Pease Park
Pease Park doesn’t generally get the attention it probably deserves as one of Austin’s largest central green spaces — not outside of the yearly Eeyore’s Birthday festival, at least. Stretching 84 acres (!) along North Lamar Boulevard between West 15th and West 31st Streets, the park follows a large stretch of Shoal Creek and contains playgrounds, sports facilities, and trails….