Austin City Hall (Austin, Texas)
| Austin City Hall | |
|---|---|
 Austin City Hall | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Municipal government |
| Location | 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701 |
| Coordinates | 30°15′54″N 97°44′50″W / 30.2649°N 97.7472°W |
| Completed | 2004 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) |
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Austin City Hall is the seat of Austin municipal government, located at 301 W 2nd St in downtown Austin, Texas (USA). The current building was completed in 2004. It is the meeting place for the Austin City Council.
Description
[edit]The current building was designed by Antoine Predock and Cotera + Reed Architects, which was intended to reflect what The Dallas Morning News referred to as a “crazy-quilt vitality, that embraces everything from country music to environmental protests and high-tech swagger.”[1] The new city hall, built from recycled materials, has solar panels in its garage.[2]
History
[edit]Austin formerly operated its City Hall at 124 West 8th Street.[3] In the 1980s, the City of Austin proposed a 60-acre urban renewal project for Austin's Warehouse District,[4] which would have included a new city hall complex designed by urban planner Denise Scott Brown, along with a new location for the Laguna Gloria art museum, designed by architect Robert Venturi.[5] In 1987, partially in response to the Savings and Loan Crisis, the plans were shelved when the property was foreclosed upon.[6]
In 1999, Mayor Kirk Watson and the Austin City Council approved a $10.4 million tax incentive for the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to construct a three-building complex on the same site slated for the failed city hall complex, under the stipulation that CSC funded the construction of a new city hall.[7] The first two buildings (now home to Silicon Labs) were constructed before CSC vacated the premises before following through with the construction of the city hall building.[8]
In November 2004, the Austin City Hall officially opened in its current building at 301 W 2nd St.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Austin City Hall". Hunter Douglas Contract. Archived from the original on November 19, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- ^ Witt, Howard (September 28, 2007). "In heart of Texas, drumbeat for green". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Availability of FEIS" (PDF). Fort Worth District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 9, 2009. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- ^ McCullar, Michael (June 7, 1986). "3 buildings, 3 designers, and 1 project". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Tyson, Kim (April 19, 1984). "Redevelopment proposal for warehouse district". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Tyson, Kim (October 13, 1987). "Republic Plaza foreclosure posted". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Yetmen, Canan (July 20, 2016). "Pygmalion City". Texas Architect. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
- ^ Smith, Amy (July 6, 2001). "Isn't It FABulous?". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
- ^ "Austin City Hall". City of Austin. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
External links
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