110 Austin photos from 6/6/07

[KevinFromTexas]

I went downtown lastweek and meant to post these, but I got busy. I only meant to take a few shots, and just go for a couple of hours, since I needed the exercise. Anyway, I ended up riding around for 5 hours.

Darn it, now here's the music. And who else for an Austin photo thread, but some Austin music from SRV.

Stevie Ray Vaughan ~ Love Struck Baby
• Video Link

There's this mural at Stassney & South First, pretty much sums up what I like to do. Sorry for the blur, the sun was not being helpful there.


Time Warner built their new South Austin offices in the shopping center near here. They have a bunch of their trucks inside an enclosed area with a ~7 foot wall. It was horrible looking, until this mural came along. It features some quinessential South Austin stuff. It's about 100 feet long.
















































Tacos!










The Shore inching up there.






Altavida cranes.




Insanity!






The Shore.








Mexican American Cultural Museum.


The Shore, as seen from Red River Street.






Waller Creek as it flows between the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel and The Sabine on Fifth.




AMLI II.


360 Condominiums from the northeast.


360 Condominiums from the north.


AMLI II from the northwest.


The Monarch peeking out from behind Austin City Lofts.


The Katz's caddy.


From the Whole Foods garage.


The Monarch, looking good.


360 Condominiums.


AMLI II.






I couldn't get enough of The Monarch, as the next several shots prove.












I noticed a fire truck parked outside the garage area at Whole Foods. All the fire alarms were going off inside the building as well, even up in the office portion. I have no idea what was going on. They weren't evacuating people, although cars were exiting the garage. A few minutes later this truck showed up. It looked like they were carrying some sort of vacuum or somthing.


Nice.








360 Condominiums. I went wild with it here and took a bunch. I'll be uploading these soon to Emporis, so for reference, you can go to each of these building pages at Emporis to see them. I'll get them all added eventually in a few days/weeks.


The Dennis Quaid charity thing was going on across the street, so there was a crowd. I don't know if he was there, the place was packed.










































AMLI II.


I like it. And man, this is one skinny building.


















Anyone know what they're doing to the roof of the Westgate Tower?


1108 Lavaca/Texas Automobile Dealer's Association Building construction.




One floor up, with work starting on the 2nd. Ha, they've probably finished that 2nd floor by now.




I agree, Austin must be lucky to have a building like Frost. I mean, yeah, it could have been taller, and or thinner, but I think we lucked out with it.




Thanks for looking.

[Mopacs]

Great photos Kevin! Its been about a month since my last downtown excursion, so its good to see the updates. The glass on 360 is really looking good, and Monarch has become a sleek tower.

[Boris]

Wow, the face of Austin is changing fast. The last time I was in Austin was I believe last October or November. From your photos it's completely different now.

Great shots and thx for the updated views of Austin's DT.

[DruidCity]

I've never been to Austin, but the Waller Creek photos look particularly interesting. Is that "riverwalk" looking area very extensive ?

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by DruidCity

I've never been to Austin, but the Waller Creek photos look particularly interesting. Is that "riverwalk" looking area very extensive ?

Unfortunately Waller Creek is nothing more than a drainage canal through downtown at this point. The segment pictured encompases about a 1-2 block stretch (between 5th and 6th streets)...and yet is near deserted most of the time! I believe it was developed as part of an hotel/office complex. Symphony Square (small ampitheater) is a nice stretch as well (upstream from the segment pictured)

Now on a positive note, an underground outfall tunnel is in early stages of planning, and shoudl open up nearly a mile of underutilized lots to new development (by the removal of 100-year floodplains).

[OfCourse]

Great stuff, Kevin.

[JACKinBeantown]

Now that's an update!

[JDSII]

Do you have those photos posted in a Flikr account? I would like to send the link to a friend. Thanks.

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, that's about the extent of Waller Creek as far as landscaping goes. Much of the creek is natural bottom, only a few areas are dug out and concrete canal. And yeah, that's only about a 1 to 2 block stretch as it flows through the hotel/residential building block.

My dad and I used to go down to the creeks in downtown screening for coins and jewelery. We also hauled out hundreds of bricks from the creek that had washed in there from past floods. Those old bricks made up the old streets of downtown and even some old buildings. Our driveway, patio and walkways in our yard are paved with them now. Most of the creek is nasty, though. I recall seeing some pretty disgusting stuff in the creeks while we were down there. Another thing now is security issues. I wouldn't be down there at night. There's a pretty hefty homeless population along the creeks.

[DanJ]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Those old bricks made up the old streets of downtown and even some old buildings. Our driveway, patio and walkways in our yard are paved with them now.

Wow, thats so......sweet? Is that the right word to use about bricks? Cool nonetheless. Basically making your house an historic landmark

Awesome pics too. 360 and The Monarch are lookin pretty good. That vertical shot 360 with the crane is especially cool

Great Job!

[TXLove]

great photos kevin.....I think we stay pretty darn close...I drive past that mural almost daily....Stoney Creek Apartments on Manchaca where I reside!

[greenbelt]

Awesome shots Kevin! Looking forward to the Spring and the Austinite breaking ground. Get some real heights around here.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by TXLove

great photos kevin.....I think we stay pretty darn close...I drive past that mural almost daily....Stoney Creek Apartments on Manchaca where I reside!

That's cool. I live off of Stassney Lane near The Oaks Treatment School. I think there's a few other forumers within a mile or so of my house also.

[DougRockstead]

I live further south, between Slaughter and 1626 on Manchaca. I usually come up Manchaca, but I've seen that mural. That is an ugly intersection. The Walgreens is pretty clean but everythig else on the other 3 corners looks pretty run down. Kevin, I'm guessing you live somewhere near Dittmar?

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by DougRockstead

I live further south, between Slaughter and 1626 on Manchaca. I usually come up Manchaca, but I've seen that mural. That is an ugly intersection. The Walgreens is pretty clean but everythig else on the other 3 corners looks pretty run down. Kevin, I'm guessing you live somewhere near Dittmar?

Nope. See the post above the one you made. I can walk up to there in 5 minutes.

The only real ugly development at that intersection is the convienent store on the southeast corner. There's also a laundry mat, and something else there. That stuff just has the look of being rundown. The Walgreens is an improvement over what it used to be a long time ago, which was a Texaco gas station. That station closed for some reason, and the lot set vacant for years until Walgreens moved their old store from the shopping center at the northeast corner of that intersection, to their new store. This area has actually seen a lot of new development.

Also, the old Albertsons down the street on Stassney near Manchaca, closed because they were't being able to compete with HEB. ACC bought the land and built their new South Austin Campus there in a 3-story, 62 foot tall building. Here's a picture of it that I took last Spring. There's also a 4-story parking garage behind the building to the north. No views of downtown from it, atleast not yet, but you can see the midrises at Ben White & I-35.


Oh, and there's a Planet K two doors west of the Walgreens at what used to be a Carrier air conditioner business. I can't believe that store moved out, they've been there forever, atleast 15 years. They just opened the Planet K about 3 weeks ago. I'm happy, since I can get incense there. That private residence, a house, which sits next to the Walgreens is being redeveloped. Apparently the people there sold the land. There's some kind of store being built. It's actually nearing completion, the lights were on inside lastnight, but they're still doing construction inside and doing landscaping outside. The Albertsons farther east on Stassney at I-35, which is just a few years old, also closed because of competion with HEB. That store is now a Fiesta Mart. There's a new CVS Pharmacy at Stassney & Congress that just opened earlier this year. That's nice, because that lot has been vacant for sometime after a gas station had closed there. And then there's the Lowes and all the shops next to that on the north side of Stassney, and then on the south the Krispy Kreme, two other restaurants, and two banks. The Chilli's that burned down from a lightning strike has been rebuilt and is hiring right now. Right now I'm wondering what will be built just west of all that stuff on the south side of Stassney.

It's interesting seeing all this development and new businesses moving in and out. We've lived here since 1983, and my grandparents moved in this house in 1963. Before my parents and I lived here, we lived on South First between Stassney Lane & Turtle Creek Boulevard. So we've seen this area change big time. I remember when they built Stassney through to I-35 past Congress!