A rendering of the Guthrie development planned at 3300 Gonzales Street. Photo courtesy of Argyle Residential.
Gonzales Street is quiet, for now. It’s a sleepy path of single-family homes in far East Austin just north of the East Seventh Street bridge’s span over Tillery Street, and the elevation of Seventh Street in this area insulates nearby homes from most major traffic. The abundant trees on the un-and-underdeveloped lots at the intersection of Gonzales and Tillery Streets lend the block an oddly rural stillness, which helps to circumvent its actual geography barely more than two miles from downtown.
A swing hanging underneath the Seventh Street bridge near the intersection of Tillery and Gonzales Streets. Photo courtesy of Hatch Workshop / Red Swing Project.
Since this is Austin, the Govalle neighborhood that claims Gonzales Street at its center might be described as “the next big thing,” or “the crest of the wave” — the watershed point on a vertical swath of high-density real estate development slowly chewing its way eastward through aging single-family homes and light industrial warehouses, leaving behind apartment complexes and mixed-use midrises as it goes.
The site of the former Guthrie Lumberyard at 3300 Gonzales Street. Photo by James Rambin.
It’s here in Govalle, at the site of a former Gonzales Street lumberyard, that we find a new benchmark for the eastern spread of density: The Guthrie, a four-story multifamily development planned by Oden Hughes and Argyle Residential at 3300 Gonzales Street.
A north-facing elevation of the Guthrie project. Photo courtesy of Steinberg Design Collaborative.
The project — which gets its name from the lumberyard previously at the address a la The Arnold, The Chicon, The Leslie, and so on — will contain 310 apartment units, with 12 units at a secondary Guthrie II development at 3215 Gonzales Street, just across the road from the main site.
A southern elevation of the Guthrie II, designed as a live/work building. Photo courtesy of Steinberg Design Collaborative.
It’s not really the design of the building that grabs me. Judging by the available renderings, plans and elevations, it just sort of looks like the Triangle — in fact, it’s designed by the same architects. But two things are particularly noteworthy here:
• The units at the Guthrie II are designed as live/work space, with a commercial ground floor and two floors of living space up top. This is a feature for these types of buildings you just don’t see very often — it’s usually ground floor retail with apartments up above, and never the twain shall meet. Super interesting, even if the lack of current pedestrian traffic in the neighborhood means these spaces will inevitably end up as law offices or something.
• If I’m keeping score correctly, the Guthrie is the first multifamily development of its size to arrive in this section of Austin’s far east side by something like half a mile, at least on the East Seventh Street corridor and surrounding areas.
A map of the sites for the Guthrie and Guthrie II developments. Photo courtesy of Google Maps.
Further east on Gonzales Street, MX3 Homes has several projects in play, which makes me wonder if parts of East Austin closer to the highway are finally getting too expensive even for developers. Putting up 300-plus residential units is certainly a bold way to anchor future development in a slightly more remote section of the zip code.
Another rendering of the Guthrie project. Photo courtesy of Argyle Residential.
Between this Guthrie project, the East 5th Condos, and the Rail Spur Building located a bit further down Tillery Street, we’re seeing some genuine action in this bit of Govalle. The neighborhood remains one of my favorite parts of the city, but I’m not necessarily crossing my fingers for the area to receive the East Sixth treatment.
More density is inevitable, but awareness of your surroundings and neighborhood context is often overlooked by multifamily developers. Govalle has a quieter vibe that lends itself to industrial adaptive reuse projects like the Rail Spur Building or Austin Bouldering Project’s repurposed produce factory over brand new midrise development — which often seems to deliver buildings with no sense of time, place, or anything else, for that matter.
Govalle neighborhood homes for sale
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$1,200,000
3705 Govalle Avenue #2
Austin, TX -
$2,250,000
3705 Govalle Avenue #1
Austin, TX -
$395,000
2220 Webberville Road #203
Austin, TX -
$950,000
3304 E 5th Street #3304A
Austin, TX -
$550,000
3101 Govalle Avenue #105
Austin, TX -
$799,900
302 Linden Street
Austin, TX -
$925,000
906 Linden Street #A
Austin, TX -
$699,000
3402 Goodwin Avenue
Austin, TX -
$750,000
3411 Neal Street #2
Austin, TX -
$1,300,000
3409 Neal Street #1
Austin, TX -
$999,999
2921 Lyons Road #1
Austin, TX -
$1,194,000
1121 1/2 Henninger Street #1
Austin, TX -
$699,000
2921 Lyons Road #2
Austin, TX -
$1,125,000
2708 Zaragosa Street
Austin, TX -
$809,990
1125 Tillery Street #1B
Austin, TX -
$870,000
200 Tillery Square #2
Austin, TX -
$1,625,000
200 Tillery Square #1
Austin, TX -
$740,000
2819 Lyons Road
Austin, TX -
$789,000
4717 Bolm Road
Austin, TX -
$799,000
739 Cherico Street #2
Austin, TX -
$1,299,000
739 Cherico Street #1
Austin, TX -
$835,000
4700 Gonzales Street
Austin, TX -
$1,386,092
2743 Webberville Road #1
Austin, TX -
$480,000
3310 Kay Street
Austin, TX -
$650,000
3614 E Thompson Street
Austin, TX
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$1,200,000Lot Size4,683 sqft
Home Size1,283 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$2,250,000Lot Size4,683 sqft
Home Size2,359 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$395,000Lot Size5,838 sqft
Home Size683 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths2 Baths
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$950,000Lot Size3,777 sqft
Home Size1,454 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$550,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,151 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$799,900Lot Size2,579 sqft
Home Size1,016 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$925,000Lot Size3,154 sqft
Home Size1,555 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$699,000Lot Size8,669 sqft
Home Size3,195 sqft
Beds6 Beds
Baths8 Baths
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$750,000Lot Size9,235 sqft
Home Size1,068 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$1,300,000Lot Size10,429 sqft
Home Size2,366 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
$999,999Lot Size6,587 sqft
Home Size1,826 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$1,194,000Lot Size3,485 sqft
Home Size2,048 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$699,000Lot Size6,587 sqft
Home Size988 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,125,000Lot Size6,382 sqft
Home Size2,078 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$809,990Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size1,368 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$870,000Lot Size11,409 sqft
Home Size1,093 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,625,000Lot Size11,409 sqft
Home Size2,504 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$740,000Lot Size6,578 sqft
Home Size1,716 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$789,000Lot Size2,910 sqft
Home Size1,107 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$799,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size1,087 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,299,000Lot Size7,406 sqft
Home Size2,126 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$835,000Lot Size7,724 sqft
Home Size1,532 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$1,386,092Lot Size6,988 sqft
Home Size2,414 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths4 Baths
-
$480,000Lot Size5,846 sqft
Home Size1,080 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1 Bath
-
$650,000Lot Size4,792 sqft
Home Size1,388 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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