The Trail Foundation’s vision for an improved Hike-and-Bike Trail entrance — or trailhead, using the preferred hiker-and-biker parlance — in downtown Austin’s rapidly-growing Rainey Street District is finally taking shape this month. At a public engagement meeting held last weekend, the nonprofit showed off two possible design configurations of an upgraded entry point and park space…
placemaking
At the Drake Bridge Commons, New Public Space Brings Docks Downtown
The last time we caught up with the Drake Bridge Commons — a project by Austin’s Trail Foundation imagining a new downtown public space beneath the Drake Bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake — we had two design options to choose between as part of the community engagement stage of the plan. Now, based on that input, the…
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…
Digging Into the Blockbuster Plan for the Austin American-Statesman Site
Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the Austin American-Statesman’s breaking news story about the redevelopment of its own headquarters on the south shores of Lady Bird Lake, we thought it might be nice to think a little further about the potential wrapped up in this roughly 19-acre site at 305 South Congress Avenue. Even though…
Here’s a Closer Look at Downtown’s Drake Bridge Commons Project
The bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake has held the official title of the “Drake Bridge” for 63 years of its 65-year existence — in other words, not exactly breaking news. Still, I’d bet my life that a vast majority of Austinites have no idea this is the case, perhaps even many of…
Where’s the ‘Heart’ of Downtown Austin?
Here’s a question for you that sounds almost offensively simple until you start thinking about it: Where’s downtown Austin’s “heart?” You’ll see that phrase — “the heart of downtown Austin” — in glossy hotel brochures and Airbnb listings and even on this very site, but where do you think of when you see it? We asked some people around…