Austin, TX – The Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously voted today to take steps to purchase one of the last remaining vacant city blocks that is outside all Capitol View Corridors. The prime downtown lot, owned by the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA), anchors the south side of Republic Square Park and is bounded by Third, Fourth, San Antonio and Guadalupe Streets.
This acquisition will enable two organizations to move forward with long-standing civic projects. Travis County wants to site a new Civil Courthouse here, replacing and further expanding upon space it now occupies in the historic Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse.
The negotiated final purchase price paid to the Museum for the block is $21,750,000. The County expects to receive an appraisal from an outside independent appraiser valuing the block at around $21,250,000. The County agreed to pay slightly above that value based on the proximity of the land to the county’s downtown campus, the lack of Capitol View corridor issues and most importantly its unique value as the site of the original Civil Courthouse. UGL Equis Corporation, represented by Keith Zimmerman, was selected through a competitive process as the exclusive broker for Travis County’s downtown property acquisitions. Jeff Coddington and Bob Wynn, both partners at Oxford Commercial, represented AMOA in the transaction.
The block changing hands has historic significance. It was part of the original Republic of Texas grant of land for a jail and county courthouse in 1839, and the first Travis County Courthouse was built on that site in 1855. The block was in the original drawing of Austin’s downtown created by Waller and was listed as the “Courthouse and Jail Block”. Today, it is still referenced on plats and Travis Central Appraisal District documents as the “Old Courthouse Block of the Original City”.
Emphasizing the County will not once again put a jail on this site, County Judge Samuel T. Biscoe spoke to the significance of the land acquisition. “The justice system is one of the largest and most important responsibilities that the county has by law. We recommit to our founders’ original vision of a Courthouse on this site. But we also recommit to a modern civil and family courthouse for our citizens. The last renovation occurred in 1964 when the population was one quarter of the population today. The resulting undersized and outdated courthouse creates deplorable conditions and urgent space needs.”
Very very cool. What a great spot for it, and having those two courthouses right on Republic Sq. Park I think is great. Someone else raised a good concern of how it might end up looking. I really like how the new Federal Courthouse will look, and it goes well with the new City Hall right down the road. I hope the new Travis County CH doesn't end up looking like crap.
This plan is a disaster! It's one thing to have a federal court house in the neighborhood, but a county facility like this one will ghetto-ize this burgeoning entertainment district in one fell swoop.
The responses (the intelligent ones, anyway) to the Statesman story say it all…
I'm not too thrilled about this plan either. I thought the Fed courthouse wasn't the best use for that site, and now this is just compounding the problem.
The county already has a significant presence along Airport Blvd. That seems a much more appropriate (and cheaper) area to expand. Rather than detonate Highland Mall and sell the land off piecemeal, which we all know is looking increasingly likely, it would be wonderful if the owners made a deal with the county that would turn this mall that no one wants anymore into a massive, one-stop centralized county complex and planned urban infill neighborhood a la Mueller.
I can get the whole not wanting to spend all that money to stay downtown, but I don't understand the getto comment or all of the "after dark" comments from the Statesmen article. Not everything that is done in Downtown should be solely decided upon based on nightlife and parties. I agree that is a huge aspect of Austin that we all very much love, but people do also work downtown, and more and more downtown is becoming a daytime destination. There are also many law firms downtown. I don't understand how it makes more sense making people drive from downtown to Airport BLVD 5 times a day, than putting the courthouse downtown where all of the lawyers work and having them walk there. Added bonus the Federal Courthouse is right there too. That to me sounds like much better planning than forcing people to drive a ton and significantly increases the cities walkability. A county courthouse is a busy place that is an enormous destination that handles huge number of people on a daily bases. Moving stuff like that out of downtowns (especially when the vast majority of the people who visit there every day work downtown) making people drive more and more is not good in my opinion.
However I also share the concerns not only about the likelihood it will look horrible in an area where there are some pretty nice buildings, and sadly the chances of there being any good street level retail or anything like that added to a county courthouse are probably slim to none. It would be nice to see something with some of that go in right there by that park. It needs it.
any more pics of the inside of the W hotel? im curious to see. i purchased a condo there 3 yrs ago and im a little concerned i may not get the mortgage to close on the unit. im sure they've taken a substantial hit in value.
Well that doesn't sound good. I was expecting that area to add to or extend Austin's vibrant night life. It's a little odd now. And I was really thinking that AMOA would still build something there in the future.
This part of downtown is going to be dead just light the Guadalupe and Lavaca area from 11th St. to MLK. I thought Austin was working against that? Am I missing something here? Isn't this part also like a right across from where the Ovation is going to be? Am I the only one that thinks this is a very very odd spot for this?
I can get the whole not wanting to spend all that money to stay downtown, but I don't understand the getto comment or all of the "after dark" comments from the Statesmen article. Not everything that is done in Downtown should be solely decided upon based on nightlife and parties. I agree that is a huge aspect of Austin that we all very much love, but people do also work downtown, and more and more downtown is becoming a daytime destination. There are also many law firms downtown. I don't understand how it makes more sense making people drive from downtown to Airport BLVD 5 times a day, than putting the courthouse downtown where all of the lawyers work and having them walk there. Added bonus the Federal Courthouse is right there too. That to me sounds like much better planning than forcing people to drive a ton and significantly increases the cities walkability. A county courthouse is a busy place that is an enormous destination that handles huge number of people on a daily bases. Moving stuff like that out of downtowns (especially when the vast majority of the people who visit there every day work downtown) making people drive more and more is not good in my opinion.
However I also share the concerns not only about the likelihood it will look horrible in an area where there are some pretty nice buildings, and sadly the chances of there being any good street level retail or anything like that added to a county courthouse are probably slim to none. It would be nice to see something with some of that go in right there by that park. It needs it.
the ONLY way i'm buying this if it's something like this.
I highly doubt it will be anything like what you are wanting. It is Travis County so it will probably look horrible. But from what was said about the main reason they wanted that spot was because it was not in the capitol view corridor which restricted hight, so they are going for a lot more hight and sq foot.
But the problem I have with those you posted is not the look, I like that look, but it is right by that park and separates the park from the 2nd street area. It would be nice to have some retail right there. I'd just rather make more use out of that sidewalk space than just having the walls and windows of the courthouse there.
I love that they are putting the courthouse downtown and right there with the federal courthouse. Like I said above courthouses are very busy places and handle tons and tons of people each day. That is the kind of stuff that should be in downtowns rather than suburbs or elsewhere around town. I think it is important to have stuff like that close enough for those who visit the courthouse many times a day can walk from their offices that they work at, rather than forcing them to drive. But at the same time I would hate to see just a solid block of big walls and sidewalks that people just use to walk pass on their way to somewhere else like the park or 2nd st. The two courthouses in your post are both that way.
I highly doubt it will be anything like what you are wanting. It is Travis County so it will probably look horrible. But from what was said about the main reason they wanted that spot was because it was not in the capitol view corridor which restricted hight, so they are going for a lot more hight and sq foot.
But the problem I have with those you posted is not the look, I like that look, but it is right by that park and separates the park from the 2nd street area. It would be nice to have some retail right there. I'd just rather make more use out of that sidewalk space than just having the walls and windows of the courthouse there.
I love that they are putting the courthouse downtown and right there with the federal courthouse. Like I said above courthouses are very busy places and handle tons and tons of people each day. That is the kind of stuff that should be in downtowns rather than suburbs or elsewhere around town. I think it is important to have stuff like that close enough for those who visit the courthouse many times a day can walk from their offices that they work at, rather than forcing them to drive. But at the same time I would hate to see just a solid block of big walls and sidewalks that people just use to walk pass on their way to somewhere else like the park or 2nd st. The two courthouses in your post are both that way.
It's going to be like that regardless of the architecture. Once everyone goes home... that's it. It's dead. And even when it is busy... who's going to be there? Just people going to work, then they go outside during lunch hours to grab a bite. Not quite the vibrancy Austin was looking for in the first place.
But I was joking of course about those designs. Obviously Austin will never ever get anything like that.
I agree with most of the sentiments expressed here. This is just an awful idea. If you're trying to create a vibrant neighborhood downtown, don't stick a cold, ugly government building in the middle of it. That will put a damper on any sense of community that's forming there. I'm not worried about crime or ghettoization or anything like that. They already said this will be for civil cases, not criminal ones. I'm just worried that this will add nothing to the neighborhood. That's a prime piece of real estate. Something tells me this is only happening because certain people are overly eager for some development. The only way I'd support this is if they agreed to tear down the old (hideous) courthouse. And they're not planning on doing that, from the looks of things.
I guess the one good thing about it is they said it wouldn't have to be a low-rise building. So maybe it will be somewhat tall.
I'm disappointed that a block with no capitol view height restrictions in the heart of a newly developing residential area of downtown is going to instead get a short, cinder block bunker looking building.
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