Bowling alley coming to downtown Austin
I hold the belief that the Big Lebowski made bowling cool in America again. It is certainly a cool thing to do in Austin, with the Highball, and lest we forget Saengerrunde Hall has been keepin’ it real since 1879!
Now, a new bowling alley is on tap for downtown Austin at the former Miller Blueprint building at 501 W. Sixth Street. Public records seem to tie this effort to the team behind the Goodnight, the adults-only gaming venue on Anderson Lane. If true, a downtown Goodnight should do very well on West Sixth.
The two-story building – abandoned since Miller Blueprinting relocated – is slated to be redeveloped into a four-story mutli-use building with a restaurant, cocktail lounge, event space and 9,500 square foot bowling alley.
The project will also bring Great Street improvements, which makes it a win/win/win for downtown Austin. The timeline is to-be-determined, but paperwork is flying at the city’s planning office, which indicates this project is far beyond conception and well into execution.
Seaholm Intake redesign delayed indefinitely
After spending $110,000 on two design competitions, baiting the Austin public into thinking they actually have a voice, and formally adopting a design the city Parks Department is flushing the Seaholm Redesign progress down the toilet.
There are few examples to epitomize the military acronym of a SNAFU, but this is one of them.
In 2013, there was a Seaholm Intake design competition and in September last year, the city fooled us into thinking there was two finalist designs. The winning design, by Stratus, was officially adopted in October and envisioned metallic spiral corkscrewing through the facility, along with canopy roof, would create an iconic landmark that future generations would associate with Austin.
But, hold the phone! Preservation Austin then got up-in-arms that given that the building is on the National Register of Historic Places the adopted design would fly in the face of rules that only minimal changes take place.
How the Parks Department missed this point is beyond me, but they announced they are hitting reset on the whole endeavor.
Planning Commission votes to reduce One Two East proposal
In it’s-downtown-enough-for-us-to-care news, the Austin Planning Commission has voted 7-3-1 to only partially allow the proposed zoning change for One Two East that would boost the building height to 180 feet from the 150 allowed. Basically, they voted to cap one of the two twoers at 150 feet and allow the other to go to 180 feet as requested.
Exactly how the move will impact the highly controversial project is to be determined, and it heads to Austin City Council in April, according to an Austin Monitor report.
In my opinion, nixing the zoning request on moral principles is faulty logic.
