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02/02/2012

first low-income housing project in decades planned for downtown

02/02/2012

An Austin nonprofit plans to build the first downtown development in decades to house low-income residents, a population often priced out of apartment and condo towers downtown. Foundation Communities is proposing a $15 million, four-story project called Capital Terrace at 11th and Trinity streets that will include 135 efficiency apartments. The units will be rented for $400 to $650 a month, utilities included, to single adults who earn less than $27,000 - roughly half of Austin's median income. "There are a lot of folks who work downtown, at hotels and restaurants or even the Capitol, that make less than $13 an hour and would like the option of living close by and not needing a car," said Walter Moreau, executive director of Foundation Communities. Read more...

off the grid in the city

02/02/2012

Minnie J. Chapa, a 75-year-old great-grandmother and proud renter of a nearly new, minimalist-style, three-bedroom home here, said old neighbors from Haskell Street, a stretch of cottages just east of downtown where she spent nearly 50 years, regularly ask her, "Do you live over there in the matchbox house?" To describe SOL Austin, the five-and-a-half acre development in which Ms. Chapa resides, as "the matchbox houses" is both accurate and unfair. Yes, the houses are small by American standards (they range from 1,030 to 1,816 square feet), and the architectural style is decidedly rectilinear. But the boxiness is mediated by the skyward tilt of butterfly roofs, angled to hold photovoltaic arrays and channel rainwater into barrels. Read more...

9 semifinalists named in waller creek design competition

01/31/2012

Nine teams were chosen Monday as semifinalists for the Waller Creek Conservancy design competition, from a pool of 31 entries. The competition calls for a redesign of a 1.5-mile stretch of city parkland and urban space along Waller Creek in downtown Austin. Among firms chosen by a panel of landscape architects and urban designers are Austin's Miro Rivera Architects, PageSoutherlandPage and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, as well as San Antonio's Lake/Flato Architects. Each team consists of a landscape architecture firm and design architecture firm. Read more...

austin's comp plan promotes 'centers' approach

01/31/2012

By spring, Austin City Council is expected to consider adopting a new comprehensive plan that would direct the city's growth and development over the next 30 years as its population likely doubles to 1.5 million people. "The whole emphasis of the plan is to get things connected and in close proximity to each other," said Garner Stoll, assistant director of the city's planning and development review department. "Some people can walk or use transit, but not everyone will have to take auto trips." If Austin develops in accordance with the plan, Stoll said the result would be a more affordable and liveable city. Read more...

developers to break ground on first hotel at mueller

01/26/2012

Developers are set to break ground on a 112-room Marriott next month at Mueller, the first hotel for the mixed-use development northeast of downtown. The four-story Residence Inn by Marriott will be built at the southwest corner of Lancaster Drive and 51st street, an ideal location to serve the nearby Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas at Mueller, said Greg Weaver, executive vice president of Catellus Development Corp., the master developer of Mueller. The hospital is adding a third wing as it grows even faster than originally planned, Weaver said. Read more...