Quote:
Originally Posted by austlar1
I am betting on the greater Highland Mall neighborhood in the grand scheme of things. It is too good to pass up. Your beloved Domain is just another suburban wet dream. It is sterile and artificial. It will never be another Galleria.
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(1) Highland is going to have the same sterile and artificial architecture as the Domain, or, for that matter, 2nd Street with its consistently boring architecture and rotating empty storefronts. Sterile and artificial doesn't make something not "urban." The Galleria, for what it's worth, isn't urban at all, but is actually more suburban in character (being an indoor shopping mall with highrises that happen to be attached to it) than any of the ancillary districts that Austin has to offer. I'd go further and argue that the Domain, already, is about as intensely developed as Downtown was in the 1970s, minus the handful of towers over 300 feet.
(2) the Domain, etc. is still getting the intense urban development of anywhere outside of downtown, even in parcels that aren't actually directly part of the Domain. For instance: the 11, 7, and 6 story Maravilla mixed used towers that The ATX just posted about in the North Burnet/Gateway/Domain thread for senior living. Or the multiple office mid or highrises that are either under construction now or fixing to start. And then there's the Brandywine / Intel land across Burnet from the Domain that will also end up being another major mixed-used development in this area. That entire area is being developed as actually urban, whether that urbanity happens to be new and sterile feeling. Over time, as the parking lots and warehouse space are infilled with newer and more unique projects, it won't feel that way quite as much.