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Showing posts with label bitter end. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bitter end. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2009

A Bitter End for the Warehouse District?

A crane overhanging the vanished Bitter End last year portends its doom--
and maybe that of the entire Warehouse District.
(c) Jann Alexander 2009

Can This District Be Saved? asks Katherine Gregor in the current Austin Chronicle cover story about Austin's Warehouse District. A provocative question indeed. Can Austin find the guts to maintain some of the historic fabric that makes it so attractive or will the City Council let the developers have their way with us?

The Heritage Society of Austin is working to preserve the District's historic character. It has an online petition drive (in its quest for 1000 signatures) at Save the Warehouse District to ask that City Council adopt special protections for the area at the September 24th Council meeting.

Vanishing Austin

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Commentary on Cranes and Their Creations















The building cranes loom everywhere in Austin, giving us an unusual skyline these days. It's hard to avoid casting them as characters in my Vanishing Austin photographs. When the snake that graces the east side of Ranch 616 actually seemed to have a reaction to the cranes, that was an image that seemed to embody my concept for my photographic journey through Austin old and new. Its title: Vanishing Austin / Duelling Threats. (Though you gotta wonder who's winning.)

Sometimes it's the tall towers that seem to mock the scale of the architectural ambiance that thrives so far beneath them. Still, I'm rootin' for the little guy--like the Tiniest Bar in Texas. Whose owners say they're makin' a stand, right there amidst all the high-rise action on West 5th Street, in the shadow of the Monarch. Below, Vanishing Austin / Tiny Bar, Tall Tower.

In the Warehouse District, cranes reflect back in the existing high-rises (which are themselves being overtaken by the newer skyscrapers) and provide an artsy backdrop to an older block that still stands. Here's to a fight until the Bitter End (below, Vanishing Austin / Until the Bitter End).