Town Lake Park Opens Next Week

Next week, the City of Austin will officially unveil Town Lake Park, the latest chunk of land to join the already expansive family of city parks.

Austin Parks and Recreation are responsible for some 206 parks, 26 greenbelts and 12 nature preserves, totaling a whopping 16,682 acres. Add 20 acres to that total on August 29, when the city officially celebrates the opening of Town Lake Park. Where is this all coming from, you ask? Well, you likely authorized the construction of this park when Austin overwhelmingly approved the bond proposition back in 1998. Soon after, the City Council dedicated close to $20 million to the area, which includes the Palmer Events Center and the Long Center. $7.3 million went exclusively to the park.

When the plan was initially approved, the park was meant to show the world how Austin is a vibrant epicenter of the arts and the outdoors. Unfortunately, the subsequent tech bust sent the economy on a downwards spiral; the park planning ended up getting shelved for almost a decade.

Today, proponents of the final design applaud its unobtrusive layout, while opponents bemoan that it is a waste of public money that could have gone to a more elaborate design. Original plans, much of which were spearheaded by Art in Public Places, called for more art installations, similar to Chicago's Millennium Park.

While we may not be getting a huge chrome jellybean or giant kids spitting on little kids, the park will include a an observation hill, a pond, a granite plaza with LED-lighted fountain jets, a sidewalk labyrinth and a big 'ol map of Texas.

With the recent renaming of Town Lake to Lady Bird Lake, there is talk of a name change. Some speculate that Lady Bird could grace the title of the new park. We'll have to wait a week to find out. What would you name it?

Photo courtesy of The City of Austin.

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By patrickdentler in News on August 23, 2007 10:24 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

guest

Congratulations to the City and the designers of this park!!! Please keep the momentum but don't neglect existing parks. We need public places like these that bring people of all ages from all places to interact. I have enjoyed this park with my children and observed the elderly rejuvenate with the show of lights and sound of laughter. Thank you Austin for investing in public places, and I think it's up to us the citizens to invest in the art. This is a great canvas, and I am sure that with time other artists will use this park not only for inspiration but to display their work.

guest

Crown Fountain in Chicago is awesome and wonderful fun, esp for kids. And the Millennium Bean is, despite the culture commissioner's hatred of the unofficial name, one of those things that puts Chicago back on the cultural map. Draws herds of tourists *and* their dollars. Please come back, Art in Public Places.

guest

I agree to change the name back to Town Lake and then name the new park, Lady Bird Park.

Sudo

How about keeping a theme going in the area with Texas women.

Since it's next to the Ann Richards Bridge and Lady Bird Lake, I would like to see it named after Barbara Jordan or Molly Ivans.

guest

Can't wait, it would seem to be set up better to handle just hanging out for a day as opposed to Zilker. Either way, more parks is always a good thing. As for the name, I'm not a fan of naming everything after Lady Bird now. She has enough parks named after in this country already. Don't get me wrong, she's the reason for most of them, but still.

guest

Lady Bird lake is just awkward. The double "La's" irk me.

Town Lake is such a communal sounding name, why do want to take that away?

Name the park after her, sure, but leave the lake alone.

guest

"The artists selected for this park single handedly cost the city over 200k with their take it or leave it attitude. The stakeholders did a great job in their constant push for this park!

Great job....to everyone that had a vision and worked as a team."

Wait...what?

link a source or *something* to let us in on wtf you're talking about.

guest

The artists selected for this park single handedly cost the city over 200k with their take it or leave it attitude. The stakeholders did a great job in their constant push for this park!

Great job....to everyone that had a vision and worked as a team.

guest

How about we reverse the name to Town Lake and rename the park: Lady Bird Park. After all she did improve the parkland around the Lake and didn't build the dam herself.

guest

How about changing the name back to Town Lake, and then name the new park Lady Bird Park.

guest

Lady Bird Lake Park.

Duh! ;p

guest

I second "Condo View Park".

guest

condo view park

mdahmus

LBJ park, for her husband. There could be a miniature version of the Vietnam wall. That would rock.

Scooby

How about "Town Lake Park" to pay tribute to the former name of the (soon-to-be) former cooling water reservoir for the (soon-to-be) former Holly St. Power Plant?

reynard

I really hope they put some more stupid guitars all over that park. If there's anything we need, it's more guitar sculptures. I second the motion for "Bill," why not? It's a recpectible enough name and it's not like there's not a bunch of other stuff named after that dead aristocrat. Although "Wild Lady Greens" has quite a ring to it.

guest

Hell no! No SRV park either. How about the Randy Turner Memorial Park?

piltdownman

In the spirit of keeping Austin weird, I opt for...

Leslie Park

heyzeus

I'd name it Bill.

Bill the Park.

guest

what?! they renamed town lake?? why was i not aware of this?

well they should keep the park as town lake park, just to confuse tourists and/or people who move here in twenty years or so when everyone's forgotten that we once did have a town lake...