I think the writing is "on the wall." This building is slated for demolition. I'm sure the entire property will be turned into another high rise office building or condo tower. I guess that's okay but I always thought this building had a lot of character... We'll see what we get down the road...
Another "City of Austin" cooling tower.
This is the patio at Mañana Coffee, just north of the Pfluger Pedestrian bridge over Lady Bird Lake (aka: The Colorado River). The shade structure is nice. The coffee is good and it's a nice place to practice my new, and occasional, European (and Canadian) approach to drinking coffee = Be sure to get your drink in a ceramic cup and then weld your damn ass to a chair for the duration. A very strict regimen indeed... No movement of any kind allowed before you get to the dregs at the very bottom of the cup... Sinister? Yeah.
Caution: Human in the background.
This was the home of Nau's Pharmacy for fifty or sixty years. A neighborhood place. They also had a lunch counter and their hamburgers were beyond acceptable. They made shakes and malts. They are now closed and the property has been sold to yet another ravenous developer who will build some sort of unneeded monstrosity in its place. I took Ben there when he was a kid. He loved the swivel stools at the lunch counter and the squeeze bottles of ketchup. Or "Sauce American."
Back in the dark ages, when Austin was a much, much smaller town, the city built a series of "Moon Towers" with lights on the very top that shined down across the whole Clarksville neighborhood. A very tall substitute for street lights on "short" poles. This is one of the last ones left. Now covered with inelegant cellphone repeaters and surrounded by power lines. I always wanted to climb one to see the view but heights and my brain don't get along well....
Kind of like a very much smaller Eiffel Tower right there on West Lynn Dr. and 10th Street.
The area around Nau's Pharmacy is called Clarksville. It's an old neighborhood close to downtown. It was once a very poor area with tiny houses. Now it's roiled by constant upgrading to multimillion dollar homes. The small houses are bought for the land underneath them and immediately purged to make way for far too many square feet of living space....mostly for affluent, childless couples...
Now? Mostly unaffordable. And crowded. And overrun with fancy, trendy cars.
One of the last surviving, original business in Clarksville. Sledd's Nursery. Now run by a second generation. They do wonderful work and have great stuff for gardeners. Or...your gardener. Still, I love the converted Sinclair gas station. I used to live just around the corner when I was on the faculty at UT. Heady days. Little responsibility. Too much fun. Mostly just like now.
Random rock stacking.
I have no idea. But it's fun.
I'll end my documentation of this stroll with a fantastic truck shot.
Not indicative of the majority of leased cars in the Clarksville neighborhood...
But damn. That was a fun neighborhood to live in 40 years ago. And cheap as dirt back then.
Who doesn't like a swivel stool. Did you tinkle the teaspoon in the ceramic cup? That's part of the ritual, you know, whether or not you add sugar.
ReplyDelete"I always wanted to climb one to see the view but heights and my brain don't get along well...."
ReplyDeleteI once did a story about a farmer who climbed radio towers to change those red light bulbs you see on them. I was working with a newspaper photographer from the St. Paul Pioneer Press named Joe Rossi who said something like, "Why don't I climb the tower on top of him, and then I can shoot down at him while he changes lightbulbs. Be a great shot." I said something like, "Er, terrific idea." And he did that. I think he was up 400 feet. You actually climbed on a ladder that was inside the tower -- the tower was probably six feet square. The farmer said, "You don't have to worry about getting killed in a fall, John. You wouldn't drop more than fifteen feet before you'd be beaten to death by the ladder and the superstructure." That was encouraging. I climbed carefully up until I could see South Dakota, and then carefully climbed back down.
I was intrigued, so I located some of the sites on Google Maps. Tricky, because the best, most obvious angles seem to be obstructed, else the surroundings are distracting. For example, I love the textures and color of the cooling tower, but would struggle with the bottom half of the thing.
ReplyDeleteJeff in Colorado