PHOTO BY DAVID SUCSY.
Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake). The new lake inspired a grassroots effort to establish a “greenbelt city.” In the 1970s, two initiatives, the Town Lake Greenbelt and the Creeks Project, created paths and bridges along the Colorado River and many of the city’s creeks, repositioning Austin’s landscape as a social nexus for the city. This ecological consciousness directed growth patterns in central Austin toward an environmentally aware city. As the land along Austin’s greenbelts has been built up, however, the conflicts between the needs of the city’s underlying natural systems and the dynamics of urban growth have increased. Similar circumstances elsewhere gave rise to what is now referred to as the “Vancouver model” — development characterized by the construction of high-rise point-towers in response to substantial land costs, a demand for inner-city housing, and a mandate to preserve important viewsheds of the landscape. Recent high-rise development in Austin has followed the same pattern. Developers are capitalizing on underutilized land in the
A series of initiatives could establish Austin’s green infrastructure as the preeminent agent of a new compact and connected city. downtown warehouse district and along the lake and creek shores, redefining the skyline. Projects such as Block 21, home to W Austin and Austin City Limits, are increasingly providing the framework for hybrid, multiuse areas that are injecting new residential and cultural vivacity into the downtown. This is a far cry from the mono-programmed office towers of the last century. Green Infrastructure and Designer Ecology
The planned transformation of Waller Creek is the perfect example of the current development pressure and the need for clear, well thought out
1/2 2014
Texas Architect 55