Search Results for: Waller Park Place

Waller Creek design up-to-bat for council approval

Jude Galligan | June 17, 2013 |

An inspired master plan design for Waller Creek is inching closer to reality. It’s on the agenda for City Council this Thursday. It is a big step in a project I am a big fan of, and will be another transformative measure to propel Austin into the next 100 years.

You may vaguely remember news from six months ago, or so, about city council approving a plan for Waller Creek. What actually happened is City Council approved the design team, from a national competition, but not their design plan.

Here is a PDF of the design plan. (use this backup link if that doesn’t work). If you are super interested, you can watch a presentation made to city council last week like I did. (skip to 11:00 to bypass city council doldrums.)

The plan is rather broad for council to be approving wholesale, but it appears linked to getting donors who are comfortable cutting big checks.

Highlights of the plan:

Build an outdoor concert stage — called the Poppy — at Waterlook Park just south of where the new Dell Medical Hospital will be built..
Connect a bunch of trails and mini-bridges over the creek, connecting the Rainey Street District into the greater downtown area.
Remove/replace the Austin Police Department headquarters.
Build a pontoon bridge connecting to the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, which will swing from 12 O’Clock position – connecting the shores – to a 9 O’Clock position in order to open the water for boats.

If you’ve read this far, and are like “What the heck is Waller Creek?” here is a crude cheat sheet:

There is a creek in downtown Austin, on the west side of I-35 stretching from the river (lake) to UT-Austin campus, which is prone to flooding when it rains. So the properties surrounding it represent a large economic development opportunity.
The city is spending large sums of money, which no one disagrees with, to dig a huge tunnel deep underground, which will act as a drain for the floodwater, thus making it cool to redevelop the creek area.
A new conservancy was formed for stewardship and to raise money for grade level improvements, and held a national competition, and a firm based in Brooklyn, NYC won.
The design firm, the conservancy and the city are signing a legal agreement to more or less turn the Waller Creek District over to the conservancy, with the usual city checks and balances, etc.
This project is coinciding with the new Dell Medical School and adjacent development near the Erwin Center, along with a vaguely outlined “innovation district” along the east side of the State Capitol Complex.

Wooldridge Square Park Is Getting A Facelift

Jude Galligan | June 7, 2012 |

Wooldridge Square Park is closed for the next year, or so, as it receives improvements to the irrigation and landscaping.

Amidst a sea of bureaucratic bunk houses, a Malaise Era parking garage, a jail, and a drive-thru Bank of America, the park’s central gazebo and the close Austin History center can still conjure up memories of a shaded and serene sloped park hill.

Wooldridge Square was a part of the original plans for the City of Austin as laid out by Edwin Waller in 1839. It became a dedicated park in 1909 when then-Mayor Wooldridge cleared and drained the site for civic green space. The gazebo in the center of the park was added in 1910 and has a rich history of political speeches and gatherings for State, County and City officials.

The park is recently best known for hosting giant chess, and being the defacto setup for Mobile Loaves & Fishes, which helps feed Austin’s homeless population.

A couple of months ago, I headed over to play giant chess in the evening. Very enjoyable. No safety concerns, personally, but it’s clear that vagrancy keeps the masses at a distance.

If Wooldridge’s challenges can be distilled into three buckets, below is how I would describe them:

1) no surrounding pedestrian-oriented uses (attraction)
2) vagrancy (perception of safety)
3) poor/no irrigation (placemaking, grass)

Within a year, the irrigation should be improved. I understand that alternative placement or better coordination with MLF is being discussed. There’s a higher and better use for that parking garage and Bank of America, and those will eventually be replaced.

This is progress.

Should The City Allow New Surface Parking On Rainey Street?

Jude Galligan | January 27, 2011 |

It was the Downtown Austin Convention Center Overlay combined with a down market and CBD zoning that created a perfect environment for the bungalow-to-bar renovation boom on Rainey Street. Now, to spur new infrastructure and a better mix of retail uses, allowing surface level parking in Rainey Street neighborhood is worthy of reexamination.

Some of my highly informed friends in downtown Austin, whose opinions I greatly respect, will disagree with me. And, in general, I would discourage new downtown surface level parking in most circumstances. Short of incentives to develop structured shared parking [underground!], we need to take a pragmatic look at how to deal with the Rainey Street neighborhood in the short-run.

Proposal: A Pocket Park For Rainey Street District

Jude Galligan | July 21, 2010 |

On August 3rd, PARD will present a concept for a new park in the Rainey Street District. We inquired about the specific location, but didn’t get a specific answer. Above are four locations where we think it could end up. The most likely location would be to the southeast, close to Waller Beach – which has the distinction of having accessible parking, and is home to the only kids’ playscape in downtown Austin.

UPDATE: According to PARD (thanks!), “pocket parks” by definition have minor amenities, and generally don’t provide parking. The location is TBD, based on input from the upcoming workshop, but it’s likely to be south of Cummings St. There might be bond money for playground replacement, and possibly parkland dedication funds available.

Public Invited to View Waller Creek Tunnel Models

Jude Galligan | January 16, 2009 |

This month the public can preview at the Downtown Austin Public Library a model of the future tunnel. While progress is slower than we would like to see, this has been a good month for Waller Creek. Below are some other highlites.

US Army corp of engineers report
This is a strong indicator that the engineering efforts are moving forward.
http://downtownaustin.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/waller-creek-army-corps.pdf

Waller Creek district TIF is now line item on property tax statements
The city and county approved TIF financing is now a line item on the property tax bill for properties within the Waller Creek District. This indicates that the County is prepared to fund its portion of the redevelopment. No additional taxes are levied, rather a % of property taxes collected from Waller Creek district properties go towards repaying the bonds financing the construction of the tunnel.

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Dale Glover will replace Tracy Atkins on the Waller Creek Citizens Advisory Committee
Dale is a vocal and outspoken advocate of Downtown Austin and Waller Creek redevelopment. His appointment is for the DAA’s chair on the committee. This is in addition to his involvement with Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, Downtown Austin Alliance, and the Austin Parks Foundation.

Also, over the holidays, I shared a thought about how the loss of the Marriott and AMOA should reflect positively on 21c’s decision to move forward. The addition of 21c museum/hotel/residences along Waller Creek would be excellent for our values. Hopefully, they will begin to see the light!