The streetscape improvement plan by the Austin Transportation Department known as the East 51st Street Mobility Project is moving towards a groundbreaking after presenting its completed site plan by global engineering firm Atkins to the city’s Design Commission earlier this week, with a number of significant mobility and pedestrian features on deck for East 51st…
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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…
This is Austin’s ‘Evilest’ Building
Last month, we asked you fine folks to tell us which building in Austin you thought was the most “evil” — we’re talking in the context of the r/EvilBuildings subreddit here rather than any abstract stuff, which is why saying “The Governor’s Mansion” doesn’t cut it since that building doesn’t actually look like a supervillain’s lair. Based on our…
Rainey Street’s Future Skyline Looks Like a Second Downtown Austin
Earlier this summer, we were pretty darn proud to bring our readers the first-ever look at 80 Rainey Street, a 644-unit apartment and retail tower planned by local developers Lincoln Ventures for an assembly of properties between 78 to 84 Rainey Street currently occupied by a food truck park. We find this plan remarkable not only for its…
Reclaiming East Austin’s Defunct Holly Street Power Plant Starts Now
The long saga of decommissioning East Austin’s controversial Holly Street Power Plant shifts into a new gear this month, only a short 14 years after the facility’s 2007 closure. The plant generated electricity for 47 years at the eastern shore of Lady Bird Lake in the Holly neighborhood, but ceased operations after years of protest by nearby residents over its environmental…
This Downtown Austin Tower Isn’t Real, but We Like It Anyway
One thing you’ll notice reading this site is that we like the tower plans that never get built almost as much as the ones that do. Each unrealized concept for downtown Austin represents a sort of self-contained alternate universe for the direction of the city’s skyline, especially some of the more ambitious and far-fetched designs…