This week, the Historic Landmark Commission voted unanimously to recommend 2502 Park View Drive for historic zoning, a move working against the wish of homeowners to demolish the house. The case has been before the commission several times as efforts to demolish the property have stalled and restarted at various times over the last few […]
Historic Landmark Commission
The city’s Historic Landmark Commission promotes historic preservation of buildings and structures. The commission also reviews applications and permits for historic zoning and historic grants.
Posted inPreservation
Landmark commission weighs options in Tarrytown demolition case
At last month’s meeting of the Historic Landmark Commission, committee members confronted both the evolving definition of what constitutes “cultural significance” and the bounds of their responsibility to those personally affected by their decisions. Representative of this dilemma was the committee’s review of an application for the demolition of an 81-year-old home located at 3400 […]
Posted inPreservation
Landmark commission initiates historic zoning against wishes of property owners
At last month’s Historic Landmark Commission meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to initiate the historic zoning process at 2502 Park View Drive against the request of the homeowners, who were seeking to demolish the aging home. The house was under review by the commission last year for a demolition case that was eventually dropped when the […]
Posted inPreservation
Lutheran Church relocation case looks at the nature of historic status
On Monday, the Historic Landmark Commission revisited a case that involves relocating the Dessau Lutheran Church, which was constructed in 1876, to Pioneer Farms, an outdoor museum dedicated to 19th-century Texas history. The church, located at 13300 Dessau Road in North Austin, was one of the early centers of worship in the area and quickly became […]
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City postpones skate shop demolition
A groundswell of support for a beloved Austin skate shop did not fall upon unsympathetic ears at the Historic Landmark Commission. Austin Community College was seeking a permit to demolish No-Comply Skate Shop at 812 W. 12th St. to make way for a parking garage. The school needs permission from the city’s Historic Landmark Commission. […]
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Landmark Commission sends West Line case to Architectural Review Committee
Last week, applicants asked the Historic Landmark Commission for permission to demolish a building located in the West Line Historic District and replace it with a one-story cabana and a garage at 1415 W. 10th St. The building, which was first constructed in 1939, was not approved for demolition; instead, the commission moved to have […]
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Landmark commission reverses course, grants demolition for Scenic Drive home
Last month, a demolition permit request for the property at 2708 Scenic Drive came in front of the Historic Landmark Commission. The home, which was built in 1952, has fallen into disrepair, but instead of granting the permit, city staffers and the commission initiated the historic zoning process – a process that came to a […]
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Former Long Estate granted demolition permit after March fire
Last month, the Historic Landmark Commission unanimously voted to issue a demolition permit for 2308 Woodlawn Blvd., a property located in the Old West Austin National Register Historic District. Unlike many demolition permit requests that the landmark commission hears, this one was not the result of dilapidation or part of a process to drastically redesign […]
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Last residential house on Rainey cleared for demolition by landmark commission
In 2019, a KUT report introduced Austinites to John Contreras, then known as “The Last Man on Rainey Street.” Rainey Street, historically a residential neighborhood, has become one of the city’s most prominent centers for nightlife and large-scale development. Contreras’ story was noteworthy because unlike many current Rainey Street residents, he didn’t live in an […]
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Jackson-Novy-Kelly-Hoey House gets approval for front-yard pool
This week, the Historic Landmark Commission revisited a case from March in which homeowners at 2406 Harris Blvd. had requested a certificate of appropriateness to put a pool in their front yard. The issue raised concerns among commissioners because the property is home to the historic Jackson-Novy-Kelly-Hoey House. At the time, the commissioners seemed to […]
Posted inPreservation
It’s not easy to replace a venue where Janis Joplin sang
Will the treasured spirit of the old Threadgill’s live on in a proposed multifamily development slated to replace the iconic restaurant and live music venue? That would be the preferred outcome of the Historic Landmark Commission, which unanimously recommended that the developer retain as much as possible of the structure’s exterior, in spite of the […]
Posted inPreservation
New working group to study equity in preservation
Property demolitions in underserved areas of Austin have historically ranked among the most emotional cases to come before the Historic Landmark Commission – often the first stop in a succession of reviews of what’s proposed to be built in place of a building already standing. Now, the HLC and the Historic Preservation Office aim to […]