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…
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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 and Tempo by Hilton hotel with a combined 480 rooms in a 30-story tower at this site, but if…
Austin’s South Central Waterfront District Is Finally Growing Up
In 2016, the City of Austin adopted a planning framework envisioning a more urban and connected development pattern for the roughly 118-acre collection of adjacent properties directly south of the river from downtown, a district freshly dubbed the South Central Waterfront. The South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan — you know, the S.C.W.V.F.P. we all know and love! — was the blueprint, as they say,…
Austin, Consider the Bulletin Board
Growing up in Austin, the bulletin board at our neighborhood park was sort of like the early days of social media — you’d find dog-walking gigs, garage sale flyers, and considerably weirder stuff long before anyone was trying to go viral. Most people love this sort of community-minded design feature in the abstract, but the Terminator-like gaze of…