If you’ve seen the way the wind’s blowing regarding the construction of very tall buildings and accepted that downtown Austin’s western boundary is no longer actually West Avenue, but rather North Lamar Boulevard, you might also begin to accept that Duncan Neighborhood Park is possibly the downtown region’s most overlooked green space. With Shoal Creek running along its western edge…
shoal creek
Designing a Public Space Worth Missing at Downtown’s Cypress & Shoal Creek
Maybe some of you people are in much better shape than me, but jogging with a mask on really sucks. Exercise and other outdoor recreation is technically permitted during the time of coronavirus according to the city’s current guidelines — and plenty of stir-crazy people, perhaps too many at once, are enjoying this — but the combination…
Five Takeaways From the Shoal Creek Conservancy’s New Trail Plan
Shoal Creek, flowing roughly 11 miles from its headwaters north of Highway 183 to Lady Bird Lake, is one of the two major creeks running through downtown Austin. That fact alone makes it relevant to any conversation about the peaceful coexistence of the natural and built environments in the urban core, but it doesn’t seem…
Five Things to Like and Five to Improve for the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan
Susan Somers is a north Austin resident near the North Shoal Creek area, President of urbanist organization AURA, and the genius gif editor who made this blog’s most famous piece pounce. The city recently released a draft version of the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan . North Shoal Creek is on the far edge of what you might consider north central Austin –…
Waterloo Park’s Scale Model Is a Glimpse into Austin’s Future
The transformation of Waterloo Park, located between Trinity and Red River Streets directly east of the Capitol, is the Waller Creek Conservancy’s first step towards making its ambitious vision for the restoration of the downtown creek’s greenbelt a reality. Last week’s groundbreaking event marked the beginning of a joint project with the City of Austin that, according to the conservancy,…
Looking Back at Austin’s 1915 Flood, When Waller and Shoal Creeks Soaked the City
As Houston and the rest of the Texas coast begin the recovery from Hurricane Harvey’s unprecedented devastation, the roughly 10 inches of rain Austin received from the storm certainly doesn’t seem like much. Businesses along the city’s twin downtown waterways, Waller and Shoal Creeks, laid some sandbags down and called it a day. But a little more than…