Developed alongside the nearby Symphony Square as part of 1970s urban renewal efforts along Red River Street and Waller Creek, the 11-acre downtown green space at Waterloo Park hosted countless concerts, festivals, and other events from 1975 until its closure in 2011 for the construction of the Waller Creek Flood Control Tunnel, a project expected at the time to…
parks
Zilker Park’s Renovated Cafe Seeks Beer and Wine Sales at Barton Springs
The historic Zilker Cafe concessions stand, a mainstay of Austin’s beloved Barton Springs Pool since the 1960s, completed a long-awaited renovation project this year after closing “in shambles” back in 2016. With this enhanced snack hub expected to reopen soon, the City of Austin hopes to bring the park something new: legal booze. Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department is now seeking…
Austin’s Seaholm Waterfront Project Finally Moves Forward Next Week
Can you tell we’re excited about the Seaholm Waterfront project? Our antsy coverage of the city’s plan to adapt the historic 1950s former intake building of the also-former Seaholm Power Plant into a new public space and venue on Lady Bird Lake has followed the project’s various stages of imagination since long before the appearance of a master plan for the space by famed design firm…
Pease Park’s $15 Million Kingsbury Commons Project Opens Next Month
Donated to the City of Austin in 1875 by Texas Governor Elisha M. Pease, the 84-acre Pease Park is Austin’s oldest civic green space outside of the downtown public squares laid out in the city’s original plan, and next month the facility will debut its most significant upgrade since the park’s first major improvements nearly a century ago. Known as Kingsbury Commons, the project…
East Austin’s George Washington Carver Museum Is Ready To Grow
A long-awaited $58 million expansion plan that would nearly triple the square footage of East Austin’s historic George Washington Carver Museum is expected to receive the green light from Austin’s City Council later this month, with a unanimous vote of approval from the city’s Parks Board and other advisory commissions moving the project forward at the end of the expansion’s yearlong…
A Hidden Railroad Relic Steams Toward Historic Status in Downtown Austin
In the shadow of the Independent, the downtown Austin condo tower taller than any other residential structure west of the Mississippi, you’ll find an unlikely relic of an unrecognizable past — the Third Street Railroad Trestle, an overgrown piece of vestigial infrastructure removed from the current context of its urban surroundings by nearly a century. Built over…