We first dug up plans for the five-story, 120-room, Origin Hotel project headed for the growing Aldrich Street District of Central Austin’s Mueller neighborhood back in 2019, which feels like ancient history at this point. Though the future of the hospitality industry is a little blurry at the moment, from a broader perspective it’s honestly kind of strange that it…
design
Remember the Rainey Street Trailhead Project? Don’t Worry, It’s Still Alive
If you’re a longtime Towershead, you’ll know we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the development of the Rainey Street District. It’s downtown Austin’s fastest-growing region in terms of announced or planned projects, but the neighborhood is also geographically isolated due to the boundaries created by Lady Bird Lake and I-35, meaning there…
Lake Flato-Designed Canopy by Hilton Hotel Opens Tomorrow on West Sixth
It feels like only yesterday we announced plans for the Canopy by Hilton hotel staking its claim at 604 West Sixth Street in the heart of one of downtown Austin’s busiest entertainment districts, but it turns out that was actually three years ago — they say time flies when you’re having fun — and now this six-story, 140-room hotel designed by…
The Seaholm Waterfront’s First Phase Is Ready to Roll on Lady Bird Lake
It’s not like we haven’t had plenty of other important things to think about lately, but over the last few months our minds have wandered once again to the status of the Seaholm Waterfront, the long-awaited adaptive reuse project by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, the Trail Foundation, the Austin Parks Foundation, and local architecture firm…
Digging Into East Austin’s John Treviño Jr. Metro Park Master Plan
After about a year of development, the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department and Seattle landscape architecture firm GGN finally have a master plan for the improvement of the unused 330-acre East Austin parkland named for the city’s first elected Mexican-American City Council member John Treviño Jr. — and this is great news, because the…
Govalle’s Art Deco Wastewater Plant is an East Side Architectural Gem
The federal agencies of the New Deal brought some classic examples of Depression-era public works architecture to Austin in the 1930s, much of which embodies the forever-popular Art Deco styles known as Streamline Moderne and PWA Moderne. Though most of these buildings still stand in the city today, one shining local example remains decidedly under the radar, likely due…