Southwest Austin | Dripping Springs - May 2022

CITY NEWS

Downtown demolitions pave way for skyline growth

VERTICAL VOYAGE Over the past several decades, downtown Austin’s skyline has shifted away from a history of low-rise oces to welcome more high-rise towers.

BY BEN THOMPSON

make the market stand out among growing cities, Peart said. Many towers on the horizon are not dedi- cated to a single use with some mix of oce, residen- tial, and hotel or retail space. Resident and corporate demand for mixed-use options could lead to down- town Austin becoming an “18-hour city” where personal and work activities take place just a small distance apart due to new development options, Peart said. Chad Barrett, managing principal at Aquila Com- mercial, said today’s vertical swell builds on initial changes dating to the mid-2000s when downtown had a more “sleepy” vibe. Signature development has since moved either to the central business district or north to The Domain, in part given tech’s hold over development trends. “Nowadays, your big tenants are the Facebooks, the Googles, now TikTok and Cirrus Logic. Those are the tenants that are really driving the growth of downtown,” he said. Much of that new growth comes partially at the expense of what came before, an issue that can prove to be divisive both for specic projects and in the broader context of Austin’s growth. District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo, who rep- resents downtown, said she embraces much of the change the city has seen over her term in oce. How- ever, she said she has also aimed for years to improve local preservation systems as older oces, homes, warehouses and restaurants are torn down to pave the way for new towers. “There are huge benets to the redevelopment we’ve seen downtown,” Tovo said. “I do wish … we approached redevelopment with more creativity and that we didn’t make demolitions so very easy in this city.” Preservation in focus Some downtown stakeholders have held for years that Austin’s protections for other historic buildings are lacking. Advocates say the absence of eective tools leaves the city without many options to protect historic spaces. “This economic wave has risen so high that even

Austin’s development boom is showing no signs of slowing down with plans already in place to bring hundreds of stories of new development to the city skyline in the next few years, potentially at a cost to much of the familiar downtown landscape. As Austin’s core is moving further from its mid-1900’s low-rise prole to prominent high- rises and high-prole buildings, some o- cials and preservation advocates say Austin will not be able to recoup the historic character. Some of Austin’s land-use and preservation pol- icies have set the stage for the widespread redevel- opment underway downtown. While the Historic Landmark Commission reviews properties on a case- by-case basis and can recommend their preservation, many redevelopments still move through City Coun- cil, especially if the property owner opposes historic designation. Because leaders chose not to designate historical districts, the trend of redevelopment has already been set, some experts said. Areas such as the Rainey Street Historic District, a nationally recognized residential block that quickly became a hub of luxury condo and hotel towers, exemplify how quickly Austin blocks are changing. “[People] want to see something with Austin’s character and soul,” said Lindsey Derrington, exec- utive director of Preservation Austin, a nonprot focused on the conservation of historic areas and structures. “And where you tip the scales of, all of a sudden, more is new than old, you’re really going to Even with all the recent development, cranes still dot the downtown skyline as dozens of new tower projects are in the works—including 98 Red River St., which at 74 stories would be Austin’s tallest. “Looking at what we know is in the pipeline, the vertical development downtown will essentially dou- ble the size of downtown,” said Dewitt Peart, presi- dent and CEO of the Downtown Austin Alliance, an advocacy group focused on downtown. The types of developments coming to Austin also change that dynamic.” Building up downtown

Downtown Austin circa 1988 PICA25891, AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN PUBLIC LIBRARY

Downtown Austin circa 2006 LARRY D. MOORE, CC BYSA 3.0, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

existing or under construction future projects

Renderings show future downtown towers COURTESY DOWNTOWN AUSTIN ALLIANCE

Make a difference on June 3 and join United Way for Greater Austin for Summer Day of Caring! Family-friendly, in-person volunteer activities are available in both Travis and Williamson counties. Before or after you volunteer, connect with CEO David C. Smith and fellow volunteers at breakfast in Austin or lunch in Leander!

Thank you to our Summer Day of Caring sponsors!

COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM