The Sixth and Chicon apartment project under construction in one of East Austin’s densest neighborhoods at 1812 East Sixth Street celebrated its topping out last week, a major construction milestone for general contractors Cadence McShane considering the building only broke ground earlier this year, with completion expected in summer 2023. The six-story building’s “micro-housing” design by local architecture firm Mark Odom Studio…
architecture
Austin’s Former Faulk Central Library Seeks National Historic Status
From 1979 to 2017, the Faulk Central Library served as the austere headquarters of our city’s public library system at 800 Guadalupe Street, a bunker-like concrete fortress of books renamed for late Austin storyteller John Henry Faulk in 1996 — and although downtown’s new Central Library has its charms, we’re still fond of the Faulk Building’s stern appearance…
Austin’s Next Record-Breaking Supertall Tower Announced at Fifth and Trinity
Austin-based real estate development firm Wilson Capital announced this morning that its redevelopment of the Avenue Lofts site will be significantly larger than previously reported. The multifamily residential building planned for the 0.8-acre property at 410 East Fifth Street, now known as Wilson Tower, is set to rise 80 floors to a total height of 1,035 feet — and yes,…
Phase Two of the Texas Capitol Complex Project Takes Shape Downtown
One of the country’s largest architecture and design companies, the St. Louis-based HOK Group Inc., announced plans for a new Austin-based office earlier this week — and as part of that news, this new branch of the studio also gave us a look at its latest local project, the second phase of the Capitol Complex project by the…
A Block-Sized Redevelopment Could Join East Sixth Street’s Planned Revival
With the Texas Lottery Commission reportedly completing its move to fresh digs in the George H.W. Bush Building of the Capitol Complex project earlier this summer, it appears yet another downtown Austin block formerly occupied by a state agency is contemplating its future — a site plan filed with the city earlier this week indicates the easily-overlooked Grant Plaza office complex at 611…
Pay Your Final Respects to Downtown Austin’s Long-Suffering Hobby Building
It’s a remarkable work of 1980s postmodern architecture, and it’s also full of rats. Cobble those two truths together and you’ve got a nearly complete understanding of the William P. Hobby, Jr. State Office Building at 333 Guadalupe Street, a downtown structure of great ambition and eclectic design widely disliked by its tenants anyway —…