We don’t mean to brag or nuthin’, but we’re usually pretty good at knowing what’s going on around downtown, development-wise. It’s our job, more or less. So it’s a fun little change of pace when something big is going down and we have no idea why — finally, the thrill of the unknown! That’s the…
design
Dig Into Two Concepts for an Upgraded Bolm District Park in East Austin
From 1972 to 2008, the 68-acre tract of riverfront land in East Austin now known as Bolm District Park served as nothing more than a dumping ground supporting the industrial dredging and cement production of local construction materials firm Capitol Aggregate. The city’s 2013 acquisition of the site, located at 6700 Bolm Road on the neck of…
North Burnet Rezoning Brings New Heights to the Pickle Research Campus
At its February 27 meeting earlier this week, the City of Austin’s Planning Commission approved a code amendment officially creating a new zoning subdistrict for the University of Texas’ J.J. Pickle Research Campus — finally bringing this 475-acre scientific facility under the auspices of the North Burnet / Gateway Regulating Plan, which has worked since its adoption in 2009 to guide…
Gaining 50 Floors and Saving a Dive Bar on South Congress Avenue
Although we were aware back in 2023 that New York-based megadeveloper the Related Companies was looking to redevelop a roughly six-acre collection of uninspiring properties at the corner of South Congress Avenue and West Riverside Drive, you never really know what that means until the renderings drop — and drop they did, in a late-breaking story last Friday…
Swede Hill Hotel Site Seeks Rezoning for Downtown-Adjacent Apartment Tower
A rezoning case for an approximately 3.27-acre tract currently occupied by a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel along the I-35 frontage road directly east of downtown Austin could bring a 300-unit apartment tower to the northern edge of the Swede Hill neighborhood, according to the upcoming case agenda of next week’s meeting of the Planning Commission. It’s the second…
Demolition Expected for Fifth and Lavaca Corner in Downtown Austin
The news this week that downtown ping pong bar Smash ATX had permanently closed at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Lavaca Streets didn’t come as a huge surprise to us considering the longstanding plans for a dual-branded Embassy Suites