Jude Galligan

The downtown Austin “Red Line” train station is about to undergo a significant makeover, that will add room for two more trains at the station.  The capacity upgrade is expected to double the people (from >400 to 800) to commute to downtown from north Austin during rush hour.

However, the final design seems to be departure from any of the proposed concepts.

[Read more…] about New downtown Austin train station making room for pedestrian plaza

Leave no stone unturned. Check out how Austin Energy wants to use a sliver of downtown land, next to Gables Park Tower, for a new chilling station.

The site dimensions make the site pretty much unusable for intense development, so it is great to see a municipal use.  AE has engaged Cotera Reed to handle the design.  The project is being presented to the City of Austin Design Commission on the 25th.

Many downtown buildings are connected to the the City’s “chilled water loop”.  One of the existing chilling stations is at 5th & Sabine (that blue tile “box” connected to the ACVB parking garage).

-Jude

[Read more…] about Chill Out

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.

At the end of January, the master plan to redevelop the 14.3-acre Brackenridge Hospital campus in the northeast quadrant of downtown Austin got the go-ahead from Central Health board. The plan envisions up to four new skyscrapers, an open air market, housing, basically everything to run a small town.

There is a lot of fanfare about the master plan, with the grandfathers of downtown Austin development lining up to give quotes to the Statesman about the magnitude of the site.  But if the lesson of major public-private redevelopment (see: Seaholm, Greenwater) is anything, it is that the story rarely goes the way you have in mind.

These medical developments are MAJOR redevelopment efforts in Austin.  It is not just another tower.  This medical district will feel like a self-contained small city.  I think it is important to give a basic breakdown of what’s going down, so here’s what will be happening in the next 12-24 months at the site:

• The new a new medical school, research building and teaching hospital under construction at Red River and 15th Street is opening, thus Brackenridge will be shuttering.
• Central Health will seek proposals from developers to redevelop the property, probably tease the public with some of the proposed renderings from the suitors, and ultimately choose a company to negotiate a Master Development Agreement or some other arrangement. (Although I should caution: Such deals are precarious until the ink has dried on signatures and prone to unexpected delays. Expect the unexpected.)
• Wrecking balls will start to swing, and the buildings that make up the campus will be demolished.

The approved master plan stretches all the way out 2035 in multiple phases. So those sexy renderings of an open air market, and beautiful skyscrapers? Well, we might all be locked into a global war with AI robots by then, so I’m not even going to touch anything past Phase 1, which stretches from 2017 to 2025.

So if you live downtown, or are buying downtown, here is what to expect, according to the plan for Phase 1:

• The nine-story University Medical Center Brackenridge Hospital Tower stays operational through 2017, then it is demolished to make way for a public market/plaza.
• The single story building to its south is obsolete and is wiped from the Earth.
• The three-story office building and helipad are demolished to allow for the realignment of Red River Street through the Brackenridge Campus.
• The nine-story, 1,400 car space garage stays put because it is a revenue generator and will continue to be.
• In total, this demolition will allow two new development blocks to be created as soon as possible, as well as the first phase of new streets, public open spaces, and infrastructure that define them. Also envisioned during this phase is the construction of a building that would be attached to – or line – the west façade of the Main Garage.

Again, Phase 1 is what is manageable right now. What does Phase 2 and 3 have for us?

Phase 2 (2025-2030)

• The Original City Hospital Block: The Clinical Education Center (CEC)
• Block 166: The CEC Parking Garage
• Block 167: The North Wing of the Hospital Tower

Phase 3 (2030-2035)

• The “Main” Parking Garage at Block 168

Yes, even in 2035, parking garages might still command the center stage of real estate development.  Sigh.  Here is a link to the master plan (pdf).

-Jude