Downtown Austin Blog

downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog

Photo Of Waller Creek Flooding In 1935

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Thanks to LoneStarMike at SkyscraperPage for finding this.  What a great photo.  It looks as if this photo was taken from the vantage point of where the Austin Convention Center is today.  You can see the intersection of Red River and Cesar Chavez St (formerly and appropriately known as Water St, historical map).  It’s striking to see a large house on the southeast corner where we now have a surface parking lot.  It appears that gas cost $0.12 per gallon.  And, what is the sign on the shed towards the right?  Crazy.

You can see a BBQ joint on the left, but it doesn’t seem to be located where Iron Works BBQ is today.  The structure in the photo looks like it is west of Waller Creek …interesting.

From the Weigl’s website… “Fortunat quickly filled the hole and the Weigl’ operation found a new home in 1935. Shortly after their opening, disaster struck. On June 5, 1935, one of the worst floods Austin has ever seen raged throughout the city. After the waters receded, the Weigls were forced to cut out pieces of floorboard to scrape massive amounts of mud into the basement.”

Click on the photo to enlarge.

-Jude

Waller Creek flooding Cesar Chavez (Water St) @ Red River in 1935
Waller Creek flooding: Cesar Chavez (Water St) @ Red River in 1935

Round Up

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It's Better To Build Vertical Than Horizontal
It's Better To Build Vertical Than Horizontal

As we’re traveling this week, below is what’s happening in downtown Austin.

1) ROMA’s density bonus proposal (a must read pdf) is getting lots of attention, especially the conversation surrounding the Warehouse District.  Thanks to Miggy, M1EK, and Roger for the informed commentary.

Update: I encourage DAB readers take few minutes to familiarize themselves with ROMA’s proposal.  Page 21 highlights gradually sloping height limits from neighborhood to core.  The Warehouse District recommendations are a small component of a larger thought process.  Equal attention could be paid to the 3:1 FAR recommendation for the Market District along Lamar.  Philosophically, the entire proposal is still a “tax” on density in downtown Austin, which seems backwards to me.

2) The Austonian tops out.   Did you know that you can now see the Austonian from four counties?

3) J Blacks’ menu gets some respect from Maggie’s Austin.

4) ThunderCloud will soon serve subs below 360.

Downtown Austin Blog Is Growing

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DAB reaches 100,000 hits
DAB reaches 100,000 page views!

I learned a new phrase a couple of weeks ago – “hyper-localized”.  That’s a fitting description of the Downtown Austin Blog, which surpassed 100,000 hits over Labor Day weekend.  Small potatoes for some websites, but this is a fun milestone for a local real estate centric blog like DAB.  We’ve been averaging 14,000 page views per month and growing.  August was our best month with over 18,000 page views!

Downtown Austin Blog is written by myself, an occasional guest contributor, and regular readers who contribute to the discussion – without many of whom the entire Austin blogosphere would be a lot less interesting.  The positive feedback (and constructive criticism) we’ve received from our readers is appreciated more than you imagine.

One day we might decide to shift everything to DowntownAustinBlog.org, but for now please continue to encourage your friends and colleagues to “just google ‘Downtown Austin Blog'”.

Thanks,

Jude

p.s. Have you subscribed to the RSS or email feed?

What's Going To Happen To Little City?

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Whats going to happen to Little City?
What's going to happen to Little City?

According to TexasWeekly.com and the ABJ, the Texas Public Policy Foundation is under contract to purchase the building located at 916 Congress Ave, aka. Little City Cafe!!!

Little City is a long-established favorite of Congress Ave’s retail/cafe offerings.  It’s loss would be frustrating news to those working to revitalize Congress Avenue [back] into a retail destination.

Hey TPPF, there are three empty buildings across the street – 907,909,911 Congress Ave – that are available.

-Jude

For Real This Time: The I-35 Makeover Is Happening

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I-35 Makeover, Day Perspective
I-35 Makeover, Day Perspective

In 2006, neighborhood associations on both sides of the interstate were empowered to develop a concept to enhance East-West pedestrian movement beneath I-35.  The vision was to take what is the most trafficked overpass in Austin, and create a landscape that is lighter and smaller in scale than the one currently dominated by the car.

The downtown Austin segment of I-35 was constructed in 1962 and served to physically reinforce the racial divide that East Avenue had historically represented.

Now, the City of Austin leases from the State the land below the I-35 freeway.  The area is uninviting to say the least.  As part of the makeover, that area will remain parking, while the perimeter and sidewalks connecting East Side to downtown will get something closer to the “Great Streets” treatment including trees, wider sidewalks, and benches.

From Cotera+Reed Architects:

“Fourteen curved and tapered galvanized steel poles will be supported under the freeway deck, and area lighting is attached along the undersides. Individually, the shape of the poles resembles a suspension bridge – re-associating the spot with connecting. Connecting land masses, across an interruption of the landscape, proposing the idea of separation and connecting at the same time. It is intended to be a gesture – a handshake under the freeway.”

Construction is scheduled to begin as early as February 2010.

-Jude

I-35, night perspective
I-35 Makeover, Night Perspective