Although he’s often called the originator of Austin’s urbanist movement, Chris Riley is really just a guy who believes in the potential of cities as places for people. As a former City Council member, co-founder of the Downtown Austin…
Efforts by the Austin Independent School District to repurpose one of its large land holdings for affordable housing development are moving forward, with a rezoning case for a nearly 20-acre AISD property in the Govalle neighborhood of…
If you drive regularly on Cameron Road between East 51st Street and Highway 290, or Dessau Road, which is what that same road’s called once you hit the north side of 290 all the way up to Parmer Lane, you’re probably aware in the abstract…
After 40 years documenting the past and present of Austin’s music scene in publications like the Austin Chronicle, local journalist Michael Corcoran died last week at the age of 68. The passage of “Corky” into the pages of local history…
Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic was an Austin tradition for a while, or at least an Austin-area tradition, but after consistently hosting the event here from 2015 to 2023 — with 2020 and 2021 skipped for pandemic reasons, naturally —…
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…
Here’s a completely true thing you can say that will greatly irritate many people: Condos are pretty rare in Austin. Although they’re the boogeyman of choice for locals lamenting the relentless march of time, the fact is that the vast…
Two residential developments planned roughly two miles apart on the Central Austin corridor of North Lamar Boulevard are marking groundbreakings this month, with both projects bringing a combined total of 605 new apartment residences to…
You ever meet somebody who uses LinkedIn a little too much like Facebook? Downright haunting stuff, arguably some of the worst content ever posted. Us, we log in maybe once a quarter, and are hit within seconds by a wave of private…
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 through the central city has many presumably traumatized locals putting a lot…
After the widely-mourned closure of longtime Barton Springs Road restaurant and live music venue Shady Grove in 2020 not long after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the possibilities of the site’s redevelopment didn’t go undiscussed…
Waterline, the 74-story “supertall” tower project poised to break the state’s height record upon its expected completion in late 2026, is approximately halfway through its construction schedule, with the building now rising past the 35…
A permit application is now pending with the City of Austin for the demolition of the 13,000-square-foot former Frost Bank facility at 3525 Far West Boulevard, a roughly four-acre property located at the southeast corner of Far West…
Historically speaking, the most important cocktail ever poured in Austin isn’t the Mexican Martini, the Ranch Water, or even the Mad Dog Margarita. By some overly peevish definitions, it wasn’t even a cocktail at all. But when Woody Elder…
Constructed on parkland along the south shoreline of downtown’s central waterfront in 1969, the Fannie Davis Town Lake Gazebo is one of Austin’s most important and recognizable works of small-scale architecture. As the first structure…
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…
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…
A demolition permit filed with the city nearly a year ago for the Riverside Place shopping center at 2410 East Riverside Drive was finally approved this week, another sign that the 10-acre strip center’s redevelopment by owners Endeavor…
The apartment project planned for the Grant Plaza offices at 611 East Sixth Street would be the first major residential development built inside downtown Austin’s infamous Sixth Street entertainment district in a generation — and even…
Anderson Square is the official name for the 16-acre ocean of asphalt located at the southwest corner of the interchange between Highway 183, West Anderson Lane, and North Lamar Boulevard in Central Austin; a sleepy yet humongous shopping…
The transformative land use changes passed by Austin City Council last week didn’t come out of nowhere, although the possibility of their adoption felt like wild fantasy only a few short years ago. The speed of Austin’s changing local…
After a history of serious car crashes and a particularly dramatic accident in 2022 injuring 10 people, the yearlong safety pilot implemented on Barton Springs Road by the City of Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department was a…
As cranes and towers rise in tandem over the Rainey Street District, the fate of a small 0.27-acre parcel at the corner of Rainey and River Streets is a more subtle topic of ongoing discussion in this downtown Austin neighborhood — owned…
We were pretty tickled to dig up the news last year that Dallas-based developers Trammell Crow Company and its subsidiary High Street Residential were planning a mixed-use redevelopment of South Austin’s largely vacant Twin Oaks Shopping…
Most unrealized tower plans never officially fail, they just fade away into vaporware. Start dates get kicked down the road, companies restructure, plans change, and so on. For obvious reasons, no sane developer wants to drop a press…
The 41-story Vesper condo tower is now complete in the Rainey Street District of downtown Austin, with its first phase of move-ins kicking off this week. According to developers Pearlstone Partners and sales agency Prospect Real Estate,…
Multinational petroleum giant Shell is leaning into a recently announced strategic pivot towards electric vehicles, with plans to nearly quadruple its existing network of EV charging stations by 2030 — and Austin appears to be one of the…
The redevelopment of the Lamar Business Park, an approximately 14-acre shopping center and office park in the North Loop neighborhood of Central Austin best known for its anchor tenants of Goodwill and Half Price Books, is now free to move…
A resolution passed earlier today by Austin City Council directs our beloved city staff to research how to gas up UNO. What’s UNO? Well, UNO is for you and me, and UNO’s building density. UNO keeps rents lower here than any district far or…
Have you heard the good news about the North Burnet / Gateway Regulating Plan? This is the part of the monologue where people typically slam the door in our faces, but since you’re on the internet you can’t get away! Marching into the…