Texas Capitol Complex & North Austin Complex Projects Update Thread

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

I know this has been mentioned before, but it looks like Houston won the Texas Music Museum battle....

from the Austin Monitor today.....

"Asked by Council Member Alison Alter what type of museum would eventually grace the new pedestrian mall, Howard said that although hopes of a Texas Music Museum had been dashed by Houston-area legislators during the last legislative session, whatever is approved would be something complementary to the nearby Bullock and Blanton museums."


ERRRRRRR!

Houston didn't win a state music museum. Austin was just stopped from getting one. As far as I can tell it could still happen during the next Legislature session.

[drummer]

Well, we can still have a SRV museum or something... or an Austin Music History Museum.... or something?

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by The ATX

Houston didn't win a state music museum. Austin was just stopped from getting one. As far as I can tell it could still happen during the next Legislature session.

I hate games in politics.
Sucks.

[The ATX]

Has anyone been by the site? Are they currently excavating for both office buildings or just the 1801 building across from Bullock? Also, the State's North Austin campus was scheduled to break ground December 1st.

[smith_atx]

City Council paved the way Thursday for a major state project that will transform three blocks of downtown from roadway into a grass-covered pedestrian mall.

Council voted to give the Texas Facilities Commission the OK to seize control of city right of way on Congress Avenue between 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to construct the “Texas Mall” and the underground parking garage underneath.

https://www.austinmonitor.com/storie...-congress-ave/

[The ATX]

Here's a 32 page presentation that was made to the Downtown Commission on Wednesday as a Capitol Complex project update. There are some new renderings and lots of maps showing the three phases.

http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=291347

[drummer]

The more I see these renderings the more I'm excited about the potential of this area.

[Urbannizer]

Wasn't there a groundbreaking ceremony held for the office buildings? There's no work going on atm.

[ahealy]

Well fuck me sideways! That’s amazing! Maybe we’ll actually get a real museum as well! I have a feeling the Capital Complex is going to be the next big booming part of Austin...following Seaholm/West Downtown.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Well fuck me sideways! That’s amazing! Maybe we’ll actually get a real museum as well! I have a feeling the Capital Complex is going to be the next big booming part of Austin...following Seaholm/West Downtown.

But it's still state offices. Once 5 o'clock strikes, that whole area will clear out so what would keep people there well into the night? Will there be retail, entertainment venues or restaurants? It's going to be nice and sure it's the next construction boom area but I'm not sure it's going to be filled with people after dark as most of the capitol complex isn't now.

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

But it's still state offices. Once 5 o'clock strikes, that whole area will clear out so what would keep people there well into the night? Will there be retail, entertainment venues or restaurants? It's going to be nice and sure it's the next construction boom area but I'm not sure it's going to be filled with people after dark as most of the capitol complex isn't now.

It definitely has potential to get a lot of tourist traffic, farmer's markets, events, etc. I'm hopeful it could become a sort of hub for events being so close to UT and the CBD.

[Max Tower]

Per Maass, there will be no direct access to any of the surrounding buildings via the garage. When workers or visitors park their cars, they will all have to emerge onto the Texas Mall via what he dubbed “portals,” which sorta look like a large subway entrances. You can see them there in the renderings above and below — they’re those glass boxes.

As Maass told the commission: “This was was done on purpose so that it would activate the space, so that the thousands of employees that work and park here are going to come out and hopefully have chance encounters, hopefully strike up conversations, perhaps go to the coffee shop that’s there…and just have interactions.”

If that sounds more like Jane Jacobs than your average state employee, Maass later admitted to me that he had, of late, “drank the kool-aid and became a new urbanist.”

Capitol Complex Master Plan’s First Phase Brings State-Sponsored Urbanism to Downtown Austin’s Dead Zone - TOWERS.net

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by Max Tower

Capitol Complex Master Plan’s First Phase Brings State-Sponsored Urbanism to Downtown Austin’s Dead Zone - TOWERS.net

With regard to the critique of the large amount of parking this will bring to the area, I would counter that it makes the current set of Capitol Complex parking garages more unnecessary. Hopefully, this means that they are more likely to be redeveloped. If they are redeveloped, whatever gets built could have it's parking needs satisfied by this "Texas Mall" development. It would be less likely to need to include parking of it's own.

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by paul78701

With regard to the critique of the large amount of parking this will bring to the area, I would counter that it makes the current set of Capitol Complex parking garages more unnecessary. Hopefully, this means that they are more likely to be redeveloped. If they are redeveloped, whatever gets built could have it's parking needs satisfied by this "Texas Mall" development. It would be less likely to need to include parking of it's own.

This. Tear those awful things down.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by paul78701

With regard to the critique of the large amount of parking this will bring to the area, I would counter that it makes the current set of Capitol Complex parking garages more unnecessary. Hopefully, this means that they are more likely to be redeveloped. If they are redeveloped, whatever gets built could have it's parking needs satisfied by this "Texas Mall" development. It would be less likely to need to include parking of it's own.

That's what I was hoping the whole point of this project was. Build new parking at the Capitol complex, tear down those old garages and turn that area into a meaningful new neighborhood. With Waterloo Park being revitalized and the Brackenridge Hospital area also being redeveloped, I feel like that whole area on San Jacinto/Trinity between MLK and 11th or so has the potential to be a great new neighborhood.

[urbancore]

too bad they can't drop 15th street below grade. It will really divide this space and keep it from reaching it's full connected potential.

[drummer]

Yeah, but it'd be a tough sell for cost of doing that. It would certainly be cool to have a contiguous pedestrian mall...and do the same with MLK so the mall could connect to the UT pedestrian area along Speedway. That'd be awesome! Unbroken pedestrian space from 24th down to 11th street, potentially. Won't happen, but it'd be pretty great.

[The ATX]

It took an update to Google Earth to finally verify that site prep is underway. This is the 1800 block of Congress.

[KevinFromTexas]

No one ever willingly visits the capitol complex.

A part of me wishes we could just say the hell with it and move the Seaholm Substation there.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

No one ever willingly visits the capitol complex.

A part of me wishes we could just say the hell with it and move the Seaholm Substation there.

They could couple it with some sort of history of electricity in Texas museum lol.