As Austin moves full steam ahead with plans to nearly double the size of its Convention Center, city staff are scrambling to keep two historic structures off its list of potential casualties.
Located just across Red River from the existing Center, the buildings known as the Trask and Castleman-Bull Houses are no strangers to the pressures of redevelopment, having arrived at their present home by way of relocation in 1991 and 2001 respectively. Now, the 175 and 152-year-old homes will again be forced to move to allow for a brand new district chilling plant for the $1.6 billion dollar project.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns in trying to figure out how to keep these buildings intact,” said Historic Preservation Division Manager Kim McKnight. “We do have very clear direction from Council to do whatever is necessary to get this dealt with in terms of removing historic designation as an obstacle.”
Originally, the best-case scenario involved relocation to Pioneer Farms, an educational facility where the homes would serve as artifacts of 19th century life in Downtown Austin. But at last week’s meeting of the Historic Landmark Commission, architects with LMN/Page unveiled an ambitious new concept that could see the homes temporarily relocated before folding back into the project’s landscape.
If all goes as planned, the new vision would see the Castleman-Bull House return to its present spot along Waller Creek, reoriented slightly to face the Waterloo Greenway Trailhead. The Trask House would travel a longer distance to its new home, which is currently slated to frame new pedestrian amenities at the project’s southeast corner, near the intersection of Cesar Chavez and Red River streets. Once relocated, the team hopes to install interpretive signage to illustrate the landmarks’ historic context.
“The Convention Center is wanting to go through an interpretive visioning process to tell the story of these two homes,” said project architect Ginny Chilton. “There would be a passage through this landscape that is open to the public…so they will be fully activated and engaging as live pieces of our city again.”
But first, the project’s “aggressive timeline” means the structures will need to be relocated to a temporary location as early as this October. Staff are eyeing a spot near the homes’ present location just north of Third Street, though they say plans are still unconfirmed.
The project narrowly dodged a major upset earlier this year, when plans to demolish beloved public artwork at the present Convention Center were stalled by a last-minute donation to fund their preservation and relocation elsewhere. Still, the project’s massive price tag has continued to garner criticism from those who say the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax fund would be better used to aid struggling nonprofits and legacy businesses through existing cultural grant programs.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the rezoning and certificates of appropriateness needed to lay the groundwork for the proposed relocation. The move is by no means a done deal, with staff acknowledging that a number of logistical details still remain to be ironed out.
“The Trask House and Castleman-Bull House have found themselves in the path of this very large, fast-moving and complex project, and there have been a lot of efforts within the past couple of months to come up with a plan to most appropriately situate these historic buildings within the context of the city,” said Capital Delivery Services Supervisor Riley Triggs. “We’ve had a very short time to think about this but it’s been a very intense and deliberative process.”
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