Downtown Park User Study – Volunteers Needed

Downtown Park User Study

The Downtown Austin Alliance is looking for volunteers to help with a survey of downtown park users during the months of June, July and August 2011.

The focus of the study will be downtown Austin’s historic Republic Square, Brush Square and Old Bakery. Volunteers will count the number of park users and conduct short interviews. Park observation sessions are in 30-minute intervals, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of the specified weeks. Volunteers can sign up for as little at 90 minutes (3 observations) per month and as much as 12 hours per month. Volunteers can even choose to buddy up, one person can count the users and the other can conduct interviews. Please feel free to sign up for as many shifts as you would like. The complete schedule is below. In order to ensure consistency in the study methodology, we are asking that volunteers attend a 1-hour mandatory training session on either Wednesday June 15 or Thursday June 16.

You can choose to observe one or several of the following downtown parks:

Republic Square: between 4th and 5th and Guadalupe and San Antonio Streets

Brush Square: between 4th and 5th and Trinity and Neches Streets

Old Bakery Park: at 10th and Congress Avenue

Summer Volunteer Schedule:

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 Thursday, June 23, 2011 Saturday, June 25, 2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Thursday, July 21, 2011 Saturday, July 23, 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Thursday, August 18, 2011 Saturday, August 20, 2011

Each day has 3 available shifts for each park:

8‐8:30am, 12‐12:30pm or  6‐6:30pm

Orientation Sessions:

Wednesday, June 15: 9-10am Where: Downtown Austin Alliance Office 211 E. 7th street, 8th Floor Conference Room

Thursday, June 16: 6-7pm Where: Downtown Austin Alliance Office 211 E. 7th street, 8th Floor Conference Room

Parking is available at the DAA garage on E. 7th Street between Brazos and San Jacinto. Just tell the attendant you are attending a meeting at the Downtown Austin Alliance.

Questions:

Contact Lauren or Melissa with questions.

Lauren Bennett - Bennett.laurend@gmail.com – 512.999.0379

Melissa Barry – Melissa@downtownaustin.com – 512.469.0476

Courtyard at Brush Square Progressing

Here’s some photos from the progress on the Art In Public Places courtyard project from Tuesday evening….

A Few Park Updates for Friday

A few updates to share from Parks around Austin:

First, we were out at Pease Park / Shoal Creek the other day with several folks from Parks and Watershed looking at some of the previous experiments that we did with demo plots, rock work, tree planting, etc. in anticipation of the big restoration project coming to that area.

Look at all of the new growth in the center of the tree!

We began at the Parking lot on parkway, just south of 24th St where earlier this year, PARD Operations (thank you Danny!) pulled back a portion of the parking around a certainly over 300 year old massive Oak tree, PARD Operations and Forestry performed a root zone invigoration with an airspade, applied dillo dirt and mulch and re-used the stone bollards we had left over from Republic Square phase 1a to surround the site. (Thanks Walter and Danny)   Further, They Might Be Monkeys, local arborists, did some pro-bono pruning and painting of the tree (thanks Walter)

Picture of Tree in Late Feb 2010 showing just completed root work and bollards installed

Pretty Amazing!

Massive Oak that recently received Root Zone Invigoration at Brush Square

Second, Work continues over at Brush Square with the Art In Public Places Courtyward with big stone pieces being moved into position.  Slow and careful work for sure, but progress is being made.

Courtyard Project continues....

Finally, while not directly park related, another portion of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway has been completed with the installation of a bridge over Waller Creek as well as additional dedicated bikeway from Red River to the frontage of IH-35.  Here’s a photo…   About 8 people on bikes passed me while taking these pictures around 11 am on a Friday…

AIPP/APF Project – the Courtyard at Brush Square

Work has begun by AIPP commissioned artists Hawkeye Glenn and Lizzie Martinez on “The Courtyard” which will be nice corner of Brush Square in downtown Austin to enjoy behind the newly restored Susanna Dickinson House.

Hawkeye and crew were able to install the first “keystone” pieces of granite and will begin working across the site.  He has cut and fit most of the pieces at his workshop prior to beginning work at Brush Square.  They look great.  This is most digging that they’ll have to do, much of the remaining stone will set much shallower.

The Austin Parks Foundation is funding 1/3 of the cost of the project – $10,000, with the City’s Art in Public Places Program (through the City’s Capitial Improvements Program) funding 2/3′s ($20,000)  Completion is expected in August.

Susanna Dickinson Hannig Museum at Brush Square Opens!

The sun was out and the grand opening ceremony was well attended this morning out at Brush Square.  Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Friends of the Museums and descendents of the family of Susanna Dickinson enjoyed the ceremony and ribbon cutting this morning.

Brush Square – Susanna Dickinson House Project

The Friends of the O Henry and Susanna Dickinson Houses, together with the Austin Parks Dept, have been working over the past seven years to restore the Susanna Dickinson House and the final phase is nearly complete.

The House is expected to open as a city museum on Texas Independence Day, March 2, 2010.   We’ve posted a few photos of the exterior of the house here.  The Austin Parks Foundation funded the Root Zone RX treatment of the big Oak Tree between the two houses which will be a courtyard funded through a City Art in Public Places grant of $30,000, with $10,000 coming from the Austin Parks Foundation.

View of the O Henry Museum

Brush Square: Suzanna Dickinson House Progress Report

While the completion of the restoration of the Suzanna Dickinson House is still a few months away from completion, the contractors are making great progress on the project.  We attended the monthly walk through on Wed, 7/29 and took a few photos.  This will be the companion museum to the O Henry House right next door when it opens in late 2009. Great work by the Friends of the Suzanna Dickinson House/O Henry Museum, the parks department, the architect and contractors.

View of the house from the rear.

Brush Square @ Cap Metro Station Update: 10/28/08

Work continues to progress along 4th St, as well as portions of Trinity St for improvements to the south side of Brush Square. Sidewalks are being poured and finished, eight of the ten new Oak trees have been planted and crews are working to finish out the remaining sidewalks near the Hilton and installing street lights, a welcome addition to the park. Check out the photos for progress through Tue, 10/28.

View West along 4th St, trees and sidewalks being installed

Looking east along 4th from Trinity St.

Brush Square – 4th St Work Continues

I must admit that I’m a little surprised at how much the contruction of the new curbs, “great streets” sidewalk and tree area is taking out a chunk of Brush Square along 4th St. Cap Metro’s contractor assures us that everything will look better and we’ll end up with a better park.

Unfortunately, due to a host of irrigation issues that occurred prior to the start of construction, it looks like we’ve lost most of the trees (yaupons) along the south side of the park that we planted about one year ago. We’ll be removing these soon and replacing them at some point after all of the dust has settled.

MetroRail Station Comes to Brush Square

Big changes are afoot on the southern side (along fourth street) of Brush Square (home to the O Henry Museum, the Suzanna Dickinson House and the central fire station). In addition to the restoration on the Dickinson House, work crews are installing a new broad sidewalk and 12 new street trees along the south side of the park along fourth street. This is part of the improvements that are being added for the Cap MetroRail station in that same block. Here’s a few photos of the work underway.