Perhaps by now you’ve heard that the Salvation Army is selling its acre-sized downtown Austin property near the corner of Eighth and Neches Streets, occupied for years by the charity’s homeless shelter until an abrupt closure last month. The site, now being marketed by commercial real estate giants CBRE, will probably need a fairly sensitive redevelopment to overcome the…
architecture
Demolition Pending For El Mercado Building at 17th and Lavaca Downtown
A permit filed with the city this week indicates the pending demolition of the buildings located at West 17th and Lavaca Streets in downtown’s growing northwest corner — most notably including the former home of the longtime El Mercado Uptown restaurant at 1702 Lavaca Street, which shuttered last year after nearly 30 years of business. Although the buildings at the corner date…
Austin Could Roll Back Its Controversial ‘Stealth Dorm’ Occupancy Limits
A proposed code amendment up for discussion at tonight’s meeting of the city’s Planning Commission could roll back Austin’s controversial reduction of citywide occupancy limits for new housing, popularly known as the “Stealth Dorm Ordinance.” Item 19 on the Tuesday, May 9 meeting’s agenda, initiated by Commissioner Maxwell and supported by Commissioner Anderson, would strike all text…
A Block-Sized Demolition’s Headed for Sixth & Blanco West of Downtown Austin
A five-story mixed-use project bringing retail, hotel, office, and residential space to more than two acres along West Sixth Street near downtown Austin is headed for the demolition phase. Sixth & Blanco, a new name for the plan first announced last summer as Clarksvillage, imagines a large-scale destination for the neighborhoods west of downtown courtesy of…
Here’s How the Waterloo Greenway’s Second Phase Transforms Waller Creek
This morning, the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy celebrates the official groundbreaking of The Confluence, the second phase of its project in partnership with the city to create a linear urban park along the path of Waller Creek through downtown Austin. Formerly known as the Waller Delta, the $91.5 million Confluence plan will transform approximately 13 acres along the creek from Fourth…
Say Goodbye to the Frank Erwin Center, a Building Austin Doesn’t Mind Losing
By most accounts, Frank Erwin was not a very nice guy. As longtime power broker of the state’s Democratic Party and chairman of the University of Texas System’s Board of Regents in the 1960s and ’70s, to the UT counterculture Erwin embodied every imaginable stereotype of The Man. His efforts against the era’s student protest…