AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[JoninATX]

Mueller Town Center has an official name now called " Aldrich Street".

The Town Center has been officially named – Aldrich Street. It’s not a name we hear much around Mueller Austin just yet, since the street is only a block long at this point, but looks like that is all going to change as the construction of the Town Center marches on.

As evidenced by the name that has been given to the Town Center, Aldrich Street will be the main drag. Think wide sidewalks, a la 2nd Street District & South Congress, lined with trees offering shade (eventually) and space to gather.

The corner of Aldrich & Robert Browning will be the hub of activity, anchored by a Hotel & Cinema (at least that’s the vision!), which will essentially be lifted off of street level and house retail underneath to continue supporting the notion of walkability & energy that can be interrupted by long stretches of building offering no activity or eye candy.

The street will be lined with restaurants and stores and will connect to Lake Park via a Paseo, that will be lifted as it crosses Simond Avenue, to create a clear pedestrian crossway and enhance connectivity between the Town Center and Lake Park.

http://muellersilentmarket.com/2012/...t-town-center/

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

Mueller Town Center has an official name now called " Aldrich Street".





http://muellersilentmarket.com/2012/...t-town-center/

Very very nice!

[cole world11]

I love spending time on the Austin forum because there's so much more going on! I wish some of yall's downtown momentum would rub off on downtown San Antonio :/ lol

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by cole world11

I love spending time on the Austin forum because there's so much more going on! I wish some of yall's downtown momentum would rub off on downtown San Antonio :/ lol

Conversely, wish we had Pearl and Museum Reach, and a Tobin Center, Western Art Museum thang happening. The historic re-use in SA is simply brilliant! It is the only large Texas city that hasn't bulldozed most traces of the past. And I hope it keeps what's left.

Soon any address bordering the Broadway neighborhood will be a very urban one, as desirable as any further north. Am loving watching the changes on google maps, and of course right here.

I think your "height phase" is about to hit downtown too. It's all about to connect up (only my opinion). Texas 2 cool cities. Cheers!

[Jdawgboy]

Wanna hear a strange street name? Try Jinx Ave. The street I live on...

[migol24]

Originally Posted by Sterling

The historic re-use in SA is simply brilliant! It is the only large Texas city that hasn't bulldozed most traces of the past. And I hope it keeps what's left.

If only Austin had done the same thing.

[NYC2ATX]

The amount of thought going into attempting to create a neighborhood with character and authenticity at Mueller is inspiring. Let's hope it comes off that way once executed.

Sidenote: I thoroughly appreciate the use of normal-sounding street names in this development and I feel that will assist in it feeling like a been-there-forever district. Aldrich Street, Simond Avenue, McCloskey Street, even Zach Scott Street, etc. ...these all sound way more real to me than the stupid shit mass homebuilders peddle like Soft Seafoam Drive, Inspiring Dew Lane, Lone Stallion Chase, Via Rosa Rojo, blah blah blah. (FYI, I totally made that whole second batch up ).

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by StatenIslander237

The amount of thought going into attempting to create a neighborhood with character and authenticity at Mueller is inspiring. Let's hope it comes off that way once executed.

Sidenote: I thoroughly appreciate the use of normal-sounding street names in this development and I feel that will assist in it feeling like a been-there-forever district. Aldrich Street, Simond Avenue, McCloskey Street, even Zach Scott Street, etc. ...these all sound way more real to me than the stupid shit mass homebuilders peddle like Soft Seafoam Drive, Inspiring Dew Lane, Lone Stallion Chase, Via Rosa Rojo, blah blah blah. (FYI, I totally made that whole second batch up ).

My sister lives on a Nijmegen Drive in "one of those neighborhoods". The street is named after the Dutch city. It's pronounced Ny-meg-gan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijmegen

All the streets in my neighborhood are named after deserts. Libyan, Mojave, Sahara, Gobi, etc.

I'd rather street names be named after historical figures or places (local or not) than some cheesy name like Oak Glen or Whispering Pines.

[cvalkan]

One of my "favorites" is Piedras Blanco Dr. near William Cannon and McKinney Falls Pkwy.

On a somewhat similar note of infelicitous names, I've always wondered what the reasoning was behind the Bastrop subdivision with all the Hawaiian names (e.g., Keanahalululu Lane).

[Syndic]

I must confess that I live in one of "those neighborhoods" at the moment. All of the streets in my area are named after influential authors; Orwell, Zola, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Kafka, Huxley, etc. Then there's some really bad, stereotypical names; Chinati Mountain Trail, Limpia Creek Drive, Candelaria Mesa Drive, Quitman Mountain Way. It's really awful. The authors thing is kind of cool, but what's with these other names? It seems like a mix of branding strategy and laziness.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Syndic

I must confess that I live in one of "those neighborhoods" at the moment. All of the streets in my area are named after influential authors; Orwell, Zola, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Kafka, Huxley, etc. Then there's some really bad, stereotypical names; Chinati Mountain Trail, Limpia Creek Drive, Candelaria Mesa Drive, Quitman Mountain Way. It's really awful. The authors thing is kind of cool, but what's with these other names? It seems like a mix of branding strategy and laziness.

Those other names are mountains and other geological features in West Texas. Candelaria is a small town in Presidio County.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by cvalkan

One of my "favorites" is Piedras Blanco Dr. near William Cannon and McKinney Falls Pkwy.

On a somewhat similar note of infelicitous names, I've always wondered what the reasoning was behind the Bastrop subdivision with all the Hawaiian names (e.g., Keanahalululu Lane).

My understanding is that the original developer was enchanted with all things Hawaiian. Unfortunately the Lost Pines area of Bastrop does not have a damn thing about it that is remotely Hawaiian. I always thought the that the neighborhood suffered in terms of property values because of the cheesy Hawaiian theme. It is (or was before the fire) an area of nice hills and dense pine forest adjacent to the Colorado River. It always reminded me of areas outside of Atlanta or somewhere in the deep South.

[BrodeRayEwing]

......

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...in-worlds.html

Austin ranks in world’s fastest-growing economies report
Austin Business Journal by Sarah Drake, Web Editor
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 1:33pm CST

Sarah Drake
Web Editor- Austin Business Journal

Austin is one of only five metropolitan areas in all of North America to rank in the top 70 of the 300 fastest-growing metropolitan economies worldwide, according to a Friday report.

Austin ranks No. 61 after experiencing a major recession and partial economic recovery, according to the report by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

-

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...-not-much.html

Need space in downtown Austin for your company? Good luck in this market
Austin Business Journal by Jan Buchholz, Staff Writer
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 5:00am CST - Last Modified: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 10:01pm CST

For many companies, especially those with more than 100 people under one roof, there may as well be a gigantic “no vacancy” sign over downtown Austin.

With a new mix of companies clamoring for space in the Central Business District, vacancy rates have plummeted to about 10.9 percent for Class A office properties, said Kim Gatley, senior vice president and director of research for NAI REOC brokerage in Austin. The squeeze is so tight that some commercial real estate brokers are wondering whether there are enough large blocks of space to accommodate new companies to the market.

[Tex17]

I love themed street names for neighborhoods. A famous artists and a famous composers one would be cool.

Mozart
Beethoven
Bach
Strauss
Brahms
Holst
Mahler
Verdi
Wagner
Copland
Gershwin
Sibelius
Liszt

those could all be cool names. Then you have

Cezanne
Monet
Matisse
Braque
Mondrian
Rubens
O'Keeffe
Whistler
Da Vinci
Picasso
Renoir
Bernini
Degas
Klimt

and so on

[nixcity]

Yea, Piedras Blanco is great, really, what dumbass came up with that.....anybody who has the slightest clue about Spanish knows those 2 words go together like that. Piedras Blancas would have been correct. However, hands down the best street name in town is Cockburn. hahahaha

[AviationGuy]

After having lunch today at Hecho en Mexico, which is at the intersection of William Cannon and Escarpment, I headed east on William Cannon and saw a street called Hitching Post and another called Fence Line. These streets are in a beautiful neighborhood and the street names don't even begin to match the neighborhood. Really silly names.

[Dale]

Best street name I've ever come across was in Hilton Head, SC. Check this out:

Ghost Crab Way

[NYC2ATX]

Hands down, the greatest concentration of stupid street names I've ever seen is browsing the exurb subdivisions of Las Vegas on Google Earth. The developers there clearly didn't try to pretend they weren't fresh out of normal names after a point.

Real examples: Remembrance Hill Street, Raindrop Canyon Avenue, Pewter Pheasant Avenue and Antique Sterling Court (both in the same subd.), Homerun Champ Drive (among a subd. full of baseball themed streets), Rustic Galleon Street, Briney Deep Avenue, Spindrift Cove Street....these developers should stop building houses in Vegas no one is buying and start writing fantasy novels.

Sorry for derailing this thread for a minute there Who's got a photo update of something!

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...th-beyond.html

North of Austin, Williamson County's growth is 'beyond exponential'
Austin Business Journal by Colin Pope, Editor
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 12:49pm CST - Last Modified: Friday, November 30, 2012, 1:39pm CST

Colin Pope
Editor- Austin Business Journal

North Austin suburbs in Williamson County will continue to be among the fastest-growing in the country during the coming years, and the onslaught of people doesn't thrill residents already living in cities such as Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander.

A quick hand-raising survey of the 400 or so attendees of Thursday's 15th annual Williamson County Growth Summit revealed that almost no one wants the area to grow that fast, but it likely will. Around 2040, more people could live in Williamson County than Travis County.

But the eye-opening, jaw-dropping information shared at the event came from city of Austin Demographer Ryan Robinson.

PDF file of slide presentation:
http://assets.bizjournals.com/austin...h%20Summit.pdf

Graph images:
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...=image_gallery