Only twenty scant acres smaller than Zilker Park, the 330-acre tract of former ranchland at the edge of District 1 now known as John Treviño Jr. Metro Park is perhaps the second most underutilized park space in far East Austin. The first, of course, is Walter E. Long Metro Park, but the almost bizarrely ambitious $800 million master plan for that enormous potential ...
historic preservation
Hey Look, the Old Ginger Man Facade is Back at the Hotel ZaZa
Remember the Hotel ZaZa and Gables Republic Square project at 401 Guadalupe Street? First announced nearly seven years ago, the timeline of this 24-story hotel and apartment project one block east from Republic Square Park has been fairly long by Austin standards, but we're expecting its opening relatively soon. Representatives of the project have slyly told us it's ...
At Holly Point, Long-Awaited Upgrades Head for an East Austin Park
The long-discussed plan for the improvement of East Austin's enormous tracts of parkland on the north shores of Lady Bird Lake near the former Holly Power Plant is finally taking its first small steps, nearly a decade after City Council approved the development of a vision for upgrading the area in 2009. Generally referred to as Holly Shores but technically containing ...
A Tower’s Headed for Downtown Austin’s Historic Royal Arch Masonic Lodge
A roughly 30-story tower project could soon rise from a historic Masonic lodge building in downtown Austin, according to a collection of planning documents filed in preparation for tonight's meeting of the city's Historic Landmark Commission. The documents, part of a certificate of appropriateness application filed with the commission by local architects Brett Rhode of Rhode ...
After 15 Years of Mueller, Its Iconic Control Tower Has Never Looked Better
It was 2007 when I tried breaking into the defunct control tower at Austin's former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport -- you can call that "urban exploration" or "criminal trespassing" at your discretion, though at the age of 15 there's admittedly not much distance between the two. My failed attempt arrived long after the site ceased its final civil aviation operations almost ...
