downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
Kudos to Alex (TXAlex) over at the skyscraperpage forums for this work. Photo was taken on Easter Sunday.
The detail is uncanny. The original version is pretty big, so click the image to get to flickr, then click on the image again to get the full size.
Hideout Theater Offers Improv Classes (link). You can register for a six week workshop beginning May 11th. Class is conveniently scheduled in the evenings.
We’ve seen several shows at the Hideout. It’s easy to walk to and you can drink beer during the show. Perfect, right? If you want to see what improv is all about, then checkout Double Barrel this Friday @ 8pm.
-Jude
We don’t spend much time in front of the television, but we never pass up Reno 911. Nick Swardson plays Terry (nsfw). Nick was in town last night at the Paramount to film his next DVD/Comedy Central special, “Seriously, who farted?” In recent years several stand up comics including Jim Gaffigan, Demetri Martin, Ralphie May have chosen Austin’s Paramount Theater as the venue for filming their DVD or television specials.
Swardson would likely tell you he chose Austin because “he likes to party.” For comics, Austin has the right blend of being a cool city, with an easy-going college town atmosphere, and a great theater – Comedy Central seems to have fallen in love with the Paramount’s proscenium-arch, the mezzanine seating, the balconies and ornate design making it the perfect setting for televised specials.
As we scootered over to last night’s Urban Core Happy Hour at SoCo designs (sponsored by DANA, SoCo designs, and Barton Place), we noticed the construction paper had been taken down on the southwest corner of 2nd and Colorado, and a bright white room was filled with some of my favorite furniture. Ligne Roset has arrived in Austin.
Ligne Roset is set to open its Austin store on April 16th, according to Forbes. I’ve recently been pretty tough on 2nd Street’s tenant mix, but there is a special place in my heart for Ligne Roset and the Togo series. Can’t wait for the grand opening.
SoCo designs
DANA
Barton Place
-Jude
With vegetation, a natural creek bed, seclusion, and rolling hills, Waterloo Park has the “right stuff” to be the best park in Austin. Flanked on the east and west by Red River Street and San Jacinto Blvd Trinity, respectively, Waterloo Park’s configuration runs north-south length wise between 15th and 12th streets, as Waller Creek meanders through it.
A couple weekends ago, we wanted to check out the “Birth of Cool” exhibit at the Blanton museum, and we decided to walk from our building (Sabine) along Waller Creek through Waterloo Park.
As we walked through Waterloo Park, we were overtaken with its beauty but disappointed in its care. We found a littered creek, overgrown vegetation, and hazardous pathways. One unmarked sinkhole in the middle of the pathway would have seriously injured anyone who didn’t notice it – easily three feet deep.
With all of its innate beauty, Waterloo Park is analogous to a gifted MVP baseball player, who somehow gets stuck playing for a losing team.
Waterloo Park sits underutilized inside an industrial zone of competing real estate interests: Travis County, State of Texas, University of Texas, and Brackenridge Hospital.
Tough location, eh?
Hospital parking garages to the east. State of Texas parking garages to the west. Social services and more parking garages to the north. The neighborhood and urban fabric breaks down north of 11th Street. Lack of coordination by the major real estate holders yields nothing of significant neighborhood value to draw a critical mass of pedestrians.
Waterloo Park is a great example of the results of poor urban planning and stakeholder coordination – the park is surrounded with parking garages (blight), is not integrated into the fabric of our neighborhood, and is often inhabited with drug addicts, drunks, and panhandlers. As such, it remains a destination that few people care to visit.
