A residential development containing 375 units and rising up to seven floors at the corner of South Congress Avenue and East Live Oak Street is now in review with the City of Austin, according to recent permit documents. Located a few blocks south of the South Congress retail district’s main drag, the project would transform a significant…
historic preservation
‘Experiential Living’ Tower Planned in Downtown Austin’s Innovation District
The 39-story tower planned by local developer LV Collective at the one-acre former site of a state pension fund office near the corner of East 12th and Sabine Streets in downtown’s emerging Innovation District shows up in the City of Austin’s permit system as a hotel, but that’s not exactly right. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s agreed on a satisfying term…
West Avenue Residential Tower Seeks Height-Friendly Rezoning Downtown
Five long years after the first rumblings of a residential tower planned on adjacent downtown tracts currently occupied by restaurants at 506 and 508 West Avenue, the 359-unit multifamily project by local developer Manifold Real Estate appears to be moving forward. A rezoning case for the two properties, changing their designation from Downtown Mixed-Use (DMU) to the more height-permissive Central…
Here’s What Goes on Top of a Highway
Last week, we asked our splendid readers to dream up a few design concepts for what might go on top of the potential caps covering the lowered and expanded Interstate 35 through downtown Austin. Putting something interesting over the newly-widened highway might be the one upside to a project we find hugely ill-advised, despite the insistence by the Texas Department of Transportation that…
Grant Plaza Redevelopment Bringing Downtown Residences to Sixth Street
The redevelopment of the Grant Plaza office complex at 611 East Sixth Street, occupying a full block at the far eastern end of what’s considered Sixth Street’s famous strip of shot bars, represents an opportunity for something new in downtown’s most troubled district — but we underestimated just how drastically the site’s owners at New York-based firm Empire Square Group are…
What Goes on Top of a Highway?
The widening and lowering of Interstate 35 in Central Austin isn’t gonna be pretty. Estimated construction times for the Texas Department of Transportation’s so-called Capital Express project hover at around eight years, and will likely take place concurrently with the voter-approved construction of Project Connect’s rail lines and other transit improvements — you should probably plan on…