Do you remember playing in the street? Sorry if this sounds too much like one of those memes about drinking from the hose, but seriously, that’s something kids used to do. The thrill of reclaiming these neighborhood spaces without the fear of getting hit by a car is within our grasp this summer thanks to the city’s Living Streets Program, which is…
walkability
Austin, Please Suggest Some Things We Could Put On Top of This Highway
As the Texas Department of Transportation’s Capital Express project widening I-35 though Austin slowly chugs to life, the possibility of a decade of construction crossing the central city has many presumably traumatized locals putting a lot of faith into the plan’s roughly $900 million silver lining — so-called caps and stitches, large and small decks covering the highway and reclaiming up to…
Austin Agrees, South First Needs a Barton Springs-Style Road Safety Pilot
After reviewing the promising early results of the city’s safety pilot on Barton Springs Road last month, we decided to casually survey our readers on where they might like to see the project’s infrastructure improvements applied elsewhere in Austin. The pilot’s “road diet”-style lane reduction, added protection for bike lanes, and upgraded pedestrian access all constitute a no-brainer for the highly visible gateway…
Affordable Senior Housing Planned in Downtown Church Parking Lot
Churches are one of the most overlooked owners of urban land, with more than a dozen large properties held by congregations in the downtown Austin area alone. Facing declining attendance and rising property values, some churches looking to maximize the use of these properties in alignment with their faith-based missions are pursuing affordable housing development — it’s so…
In South Austin, Industrial Boulevard is St. Elmo’s Next Big Deal
A number of rezoning cases on the agenda for Austin City Council’s February 1 meeting later this week point to big change on the map for the St. Elmo neighborhood of South Austin. But what’s interesting about the projects seeking these rezonings is that none are planned for the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare along St. Elmo Road, but instead a few…
Here’s Our First Look at the Centro Project’s Second Act in East Austin
The block-sized Centro office and retail development at 1401 East Sixth Street in East Austin is one of our favorite projects in this forever-growing district — the building by local firm Riverside (née Riverside Resources) features handsome warehouse-inspired good looks with plenty of masonry from the Austin office of mega-architects Gensler, and an above-average helping of pedestrian-friendly landscape…