The Waller Creek Conservancy invites Austinites to meet the four design teams chosen as finalists in the national design competition being held to decide who will win the right to shape the future of downtown Austin. The conservancy is hosting Meet Your Designers Night at the Blanton Auditorium, 200 E. MLK Jr. Blvd., May 15 from 5-7:30 p.m.
The design competition invited teams made up of landscape architects, architects, artists and other environmental design professionals to come up with a plan to make the Waller Creek creekbed and its 3,700-acre watershed into "a vibrant, livable, workable district."
Waller Creek's competition manager Donald Stastny said the competition is a huge opportunity for design professionals because the opportunity to shape the Waller Creek project—which will bring another 28 acres downtown out of the floodplain and into play—would garner international attention.
"There are many that are looking at this as the competition of the decade," Stastny said.
The problem the design teams have to solve is a complex one, said Stephanie Lee McDonald, Waller Creek Conservancy executive director. The four design teams the conservancy's jury chose from the 31 that entered each received a $100,000 honorarium to work with in presenting their project proposal. The teams must incorporate community green space, environmental protection, economic development consideration, aesthetics and other issues into their solutions.
McDonald said the teams have to weigh and balance the importance of parks, businesses, residents and community space in their designs.
"None of these places take precedence," McDonald said. "They're all important."
The four finalist teams, which are from as far away as China and as close as Austin, must submit their design concepts by Sept. 12. The concepts will be presented to the public Sept. 17-30.
The jury, which is comprised of representatives of landscape architecture, architecture, economic development and restoration ecology, will make a recommendation to the conservancy's governance group Oct. 12. The winner will be announced Oct. 16.
CMG and Public Architecture
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. and Thomas Phifer & Partners
Turenscape + Lake|Flato Architects
Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, and Rogers Marvel Architects
