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Jude Galligan

Wallspace With Permission – Austin’s Untapped Canvas

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After last night’s public briefing on the boardwalk design, i rounded the corner at city hall and noticed a painted wall with the website “placingroutes.org”. This morning I checked them out, and was delighted to discover what Placing Routes is about.

idea —> proposal —> permission —> realization

simply put, the business owner has a wall/space and the artist has an idea/concept. from there, a mural, a sculpture, a piece of art is born.

CASH mural at Wahoos. This awesome pic is from Austin Texas Daily Photo

Artists paired with buildings.  Have an artistic idea for a wall space?  Artist or building can bring an idea to the table.  Take permanence off the table, and you open up a world of opportunity, especially in downtown Austin.

A few years back, I helped to launch Wallspace Media, an advertising company that did this with projection.  We obtained permission to utilize wallspace, and did our thing.  You see this with graffiti artists, too, who developed the concept of “permission walls”.  Walk down E 5th, and across from Cafe Mundi you’ll see a massive amount of artwork on the back of an aging warehouse.  All done with permission.

As you walk around town, you’ll notice the potential for this.  Stark surfaces everywhere have the potential to bring vibrancy to the community, and energy to those who see it.

Boardwalk Public Briefing

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There’s lots of discussion and unanswered questions about the proposed Boardwalk in Lady Bird Lake.  This is your chance to become more informed. June 22, 2010 – Parks and Recreation Board, in the Boards & Commissions Room (1011), City Hall, 301 W. 2nd St. beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Downtown Austin Open Houses

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downtown Austin open house listings for Sunday, June 20th

  1. 710 Colorado St, Brown Building #3i 1bd/2ba $367,000 12-2pm [Urbanspace]
  2. 603 Davis St, The Shore condos #1603 2bd/2.5ba $640,000 11-2pm [Urbanspace]
  3. 54 Rainey St, Milago Condos PH #2 2bd/2ba $890,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
  4. 54 Rainey St, Milago Condos PH #5 2bd/2.5ba $499,900 1-3pm [Urbanspace]
  5. 800 W 5th St, Austin City Lofts #505, 2bd/2ba $530,000 2-4pm [AvenueOne]

When you’re done with the open houses, you can enjoy an afternoon on Lady Bird Lake by renting a canoe or kayak from at the Texas Rowing Center. Or, dine al fresco at Annie’s Cafe on Congress Ave for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Make sure to download my transactional report from May (registered members only) and discuss with a Realtor who lives and works in downtown Austin.

-Jude

Friday June 25th: I-35 Makeover Groundbreaking Ceremony

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PROJECT BACKGROUND & FACT SHEET

In 2004, a diverse group of citizens, businesses, and neighborhood leaders formed the I-35 Makeover Coalition to help transform this area into a public asset. They began working for a safe, clean and attractive gateway reconnecting downtown to East Austin. This area was a broad boulevard called Eastside Drive until postwar era, when IH-35 was built over it in a series of elevated and buried sections.

The Makeover Coalition provided the support necessary to improve this connection between downtown and the east side of Austin. The coalition obtained a grant of $250,000 from Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB) to help fund the landscape portion.

City Council approved two funding sources for this project. They first approved a resolution in March, 2005 explicitly supporting the use of parking revenue from the City-managed IH-35 parking lots for the IH-35 Makeover Project. In March of 2007, City Council passed a resolution setting aside $1.5 million to be provided by the future issuance of non-tax supported certificates of obligation.

These funding sources have allowed the City to move forward with the IH-35 Makeover Project, which will include reconstructing the parking lot areas, with curb and gutters to improve drainage in the area. The concrete will be cleaned, signs removed and replaced, and specialty lighting fixtures will enhance the safety, comfort, and aesthetics of the area.

The lighting project will be done through the City’s Art in Public Places Program and will be programmed LED lights in arches over the parking lots. A computer-generated illumination will create a show as well as create safe lighting.

The project is expected to start in June and take approximately seven months, at which time TXDot will begin the landscape improvements funded through the KAB grant.

More of DAB’s coverage of the I-35 Makeover

PARD vs. Pease Park

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I’m REALLY late to the discussion on this.  A neighbor was chatting about Pease Park losing disc golf. So I pulled up the Statesman article from June 3rd.  WOW!  I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

I don’t even play disc golf, but I was left speechless for a minute.  Disc golf is one of the reasons Pease Park is a destination.  Activity is what draws people into parks.  Think about Waterloo Park – little activity, little use, taken over by vagrancy.  As best as I could tell, PARD made an executive decision [with little to no public input] to remove the disc golf course.

I’m normally sympathetic to PARD’s challenges and the hard decisions they need to make to keep Austin’s parks clean and accessible for the citizens of Austin.  But, this decision truly baffles me.  It’s frustrating to see reasons cited like “compacted soil” as sufficient cause to eliminate one of the best nontraditional uses of public space, something that is core to the spirit [and brand] of Austin, IMO.

I love this quote from Matt Odam’s post...

“The city should consider shutting down the Arboretum and tearing up the parking lots so there is much less runoff into Shoal Creek…”