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,…
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Counting Down to Condo Conversion at Zilkr on the Park Apartments
We learned a couple of weeks ago that a new owner for Zilkr on the Park Apartments at 1900 Barton Springs Road plans to convert the complex to condos, with a public opening a week away. All of this is kind of interesting for a few reasons. For one, if your memory stretches back that far, you’ll recall…
Looking Back at 100 Years of Zilker
Zilker Metropolitan Park turns 100 this year, and quite a few things have changed since 1917 when philanthropist Andrew Jackson Zilker donated the park’s land to the City of Austin. To commemorate the park’s centennial, we’ve picked out some historical photos of Zilker from the last hundred years and tried to match them as closely as possible…
Uneasy Neighbors: Zilker Residents Want to Keep Downtown “Downtown”
South Austin managed to get through the 20th century without much fuss, so obsessed were the city fathers with their favorite children—all the neighborhoods north of the Colorado River. “South Austin was seen as sort of a stepchild,” said Jeff Jack, president of the Zilker Neighborhood Association and local architect. Residents south of the river thrived in this sort of anonymity, managing…