Refreshingly cool and damp weather greeted our group of about a dozen green building practitioners for a guided walk through some of Austin’s scenic West End and south shore in December. Jeremy Sigmon, of Powerstack, and Lisa Storer, of Austin Transit Partnership, co-led the walk with our sponsors.
The tour began by featuring the work of our sponsor, STG Design, offering a glimpse of the complex evolution of the Seaholm Power Plant district. The story of Seaholm echoes a similar story heard along the tour route. Since the 1960s, the vision for downtown has dramatically changed from a utilitarian one – including roadways, office buildings, and power plants – to a more utopian one, where downtown is now alive with world class greenspaces, pedestrian trails, recreational waterways, and sustainable residential and commercial buildings to match.
The reimagined former power plant, largely rebuilt between 2005 and 2015, is home to vibrant commercial and residential structures that boast LEED Gold and AEGB 4-Star certifications. The Seaholm Residences, together with the infrastructure and open spaces that each emerged from a contaminated brownfield, comprise the Seaholm Ecodistrict. Read more about the many environmental, mobility, and artistic triumphs of Seaholm’s redevelopment.
The walking tour made its way to the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge after passing through Seaholm’s “Electric Alley”, the city’s flagship downtown EV charging hub and past the CapMetro bus stop where a PowerStack solar pole survived getting run over by a bus before being relocated to a less exposed location. The bridge, a design marvel itself, offers a commanding view of the lifeblood of downtown Austin’s redevelopment: Ladybird Lake. The lake was a happy accident from the Holly Street Power Plant’s need for cooling water in 1960 and quickly spurred creative thinking by Austinites who began to reenvision a more beautiful, recreational, and desirable downtown. The bridge is the keystone of the 10-mile Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail that serves as a lively and pleasant pedestrian mobility circuit through the heart of central Austin.
Crossing to the south shore, the group climbed the spiraling hill named for local music legend Doug Sahm. The summit offers an ideal vantage point over the city skyline, where the tour focused on the larger arc of green building and sustainability history in Austin: the birthplace of the country’s green building design and practice some 50 years ago with the pioneering work of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and the community that launched the nation’s first green building standard, Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB). Austin is now home to 429 LEED certified activities, 72 million square feet of LEED certified space, and more than 21,000 AEGB rated projects, including significant recent contributions in virtually every building type. Read more on the Green Building Information Gateway.
While on the south shore, the group admired the world’s first 3D printed amphitheater, the Cosmic Pavillion, on the lawn of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which continues its commitment to sustainability excellence by recertifying under LEED O+M. Before leaving the south shore, the tour group paused in front of the Fannie Davis Town Lake Gazebo. The gazebo is the first public structure to have been built on the city’s new lakeshore some 60+ years ago and that now celebrates the role of women in construction, especially those to have envisioned the lakefront as a new public resource.
Before returning to the north shore of the lake, the tour group paused on the South First Street Bridge to consider the continual evolution of the lakefront towards the east. Here, the group was oriented to the 19 acre planned unit development (PUD) of the old Austin-American Statesman property as part of the broader south shore redevelopment, the rapid density growth of the Rainey Street district, plans for the new Austin Convention Center, the expansion of the city’s light rail system, and the rise of the tallest building in Texas, the Waterline tower. Sustainable design and certification schemes such as AEGB and LEED are endemic in each of these projects thanks both to city policy and market demand for green and resilient practices and outcomes. Notably, tour sponsor STG commented on their three high rise multifamily condominium projects in the district – Natiivo, Vesper, and 62 East (in permitting) – with energy efficiency, centralized hot water systems, and exceptional density. Each has either earned or is pursuing a 3 Star AEGB rating.
To close the tour, the group passed through a park named for the city’s first tree advocate and city councilmember, Margaret Hoffman, and past Austin City Hall. Completed in 2004 and earning LEED Gold certification, Austin City Hall was an early landmark green building that put Austin on the map for green design of public structures.
Arriving at Shoal Creek at the edge of the former Seaholm Power Plant, the tour group stood in front of the city’s next great leap in green public buildings, Austin Central Library, earning LEED Platinum certification in 2018. The STG team pointed up to the striking curtain wall facade of the Block 185 “sail” building, winner of many awards, LEED Platinum certified in 2023 and AEGB 4-Star rated. As one of the last undeveloped waterfront properties in the city, this striking tower is one of STG Design’s most iconic projects. It rises from the old Greenwater water treatment plant. The 35-story tower slashes energy, water, and waste while completely remaking the Austin skyline.
The two hour tour featured many highlights on a foggy evening but only scratched the surface of the many more sustainability achievements designed and built into Austin’s buildings, landscapes, and infrastructure. Join us for another view of Austin’s continually evolving sustainable downtown later this year – on paddleboards!
For more sustainability focused tours, events, and experiences from USGBC Texas, visit https://usgbctexas.org/events.
