South of Highway 290, much of South Congress Avenue retains its original appearance of industrial properties, car dealerships, and self-storage units. After all, this area’s pretty far from downtown by the typical standards of density — but you’ll still find pockets of rapid development along the avenue that seem to imply that won’t be the…
planning
Austin’s Rich History of Getting Mad at Skyscrapers Begins At Norwood Tower
A few months back, downtown Austin’s changing skyline went viral. A photographic comparison from roughly the same vantage point demonstrating the building boom over the past decade bounced around Twitter and Facebook and Reddit for several weeks, often accompanied by sneers and jeers from cats who pined for those sunny slopes of ten years ago. Never mind…
Austin Parks Department Plans Makeover for Zilker Botanical Garden
Citing a need for better use of space and traffic improvements, the City of Austin recently began a search for a consultant to help produce a master plan for the Zilker Botanical Garden . Remarkably, the request for proposals filed by the city noted that there has never been an approved master plan for the park. In 1962,…