Larry Speck. That’s an important name in downtown Austin. Architect and Professor, Larry Speck is a principal with PageSoutherlandPage and a teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. Larry is the design force behind the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens, Austin Convention Center, AMLI on Second, and the Austin City Lofts, amongst dozens of other significant projects. Also notably, Speck was pivotal in the design of Downtown Houston’s Discovery Green … an effort that Austin could look to as inspiration for bringing together a public park with underground parking that serves park activities and the surrounding area [MACC or Palm Park, please!].
Austin City Council recently presented Speck with a much deserved proclamation for all of his efforts in the City as well as at the University of Texas. The American Institute of Architects recently awarded Larry the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architecture Education – the highest honor for an AIA educator.
DAB got a note from Roy Gatling at Austin-Architecture.com alerting us to some new video interviews of Larry on the topic of Downtown Austin. Thanks, Roy!
Given that only a tiny fraction of us can ever live downtown and only a slightly higher fraction of those will live car-free, this is just another instance of focusing on the molehill instead of the mountain (sustainable transportation to/from core I.e. trains in their own lane).
Thanks, Jude! We’ve got a few videos from Larry regarding downtown Austin. He’s passionate about living, working and shopping there. We’ve got more about Austin architecture and architects coming soon!
Roy