Effort to reimagine Congress Avenue hits design benchmark

The city’s Downtown Commission heard an update on the Congress Avenue redesign project at its regular meeting last week.

The Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative is a partnership between the city of Austin and the Downtown Austin Alliance to reimagine the stretch between Riverside Drive and 11th Street known as the “Main Street of Texas.”

Work on the vision plan launched in 2017 and was completed in 2022. It will be the first overhaul to Congress Avenue in more than 30 years. Currently, a design team consisting of McCann Adams Studio and HDR Inc. is working to complete the initial design phase.

During an update on June 21, Jana McCann of McCann Adams Studio said the team currently is working toward completion of the schematic design, which represents 30 percent of the engineering work on the project. The team’s work is funded by the 2020 active transportation and safety bond, and those funds will be used to further an initial phase of construction.

“It’s still going to be fairly high-level until we hear back from the community and move forward with the next phase of design,” McCann told commissioners.

According to the initial design, there would be five vehicle lanes on the avenue. The design will address the road’s lack of bicycle facilities, improve pedestrian access and resolve “urgent” accessibility issues, McCann said.

“So there really is sort of an urgency to address key transportation and accessibility on the avenue,” she said.

McCann showed one conceptual drawing of a stretch of road bordered by an 8-foot-wide rain garden, a bicycle lane and a buffer zone made of granite or cobbles.

“And we’re bringing new trees all along the avenue that will be very healthy (and) be planted in a way that will give them the highest potential to grow quickly and with the most vitality,” McCann said.

Some Environmental Commission members expressed trepidation about the tree aspect of the plan, which calls for the planting of new trees along the avenue.

“The trees are just a very, very important part of the avenue,” McCann said. “But they’re not in great shape, many of them, and sometimes they’re not always the species that are going to work best in this urban environment.”

McCann said the design team is working to use upgraded planting techniques that have only become available in the past 20 years. When the current trees were planted, the city did not have the technology available that it does today. The technology should allow for the new trees to spread their roots underneath paving without compromising the walkability of the paving above.

“We’ve learned an immense amount more about trees and tree health,” McCann said.

In terms of lighting, the design team proposes to use contemporary, high-performance street lighting poles placed in line with the trees. The poles would require minimal upkeep and feature a 14-foot pedestrian luminaire and a second, taller luminaire oriented toward the roadway.

The green poles currently lining the avenue are not an exact replica of historic ones dating back to the 1940s. McCann said the design team consulted the Texas Historical Commission on the issue, and it recommended against creating what would be a “false historical fixture.”

The city’s Historic Preservation Office did express a preference for preserving the existing dark green benches. The avenue’s planters and litter bins, however, are in line for upgrades. The planters don’t hold enough planting material, and the litter bins are difficult for Austin Resource Recovery to maintain.

In the next design phase, the team will work to make decisions on public restrooms, drinking fountains, and local art and historical elements. The community and design team also will need to decide how to proceed with the Congress Avenue Bridge, which is eligible but not designated as historic.

The design team will complete the initial design phase and bring the results back to the community for feedback this fall. The city will need to make prioritization decisions with regard to what initial construction it will complete with the currently available funds.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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Posted In: Planning, District 9