If you are traveling FOR THE NEXT 1, 060 CALENDAR DAYS near the Capitol and are planning on using North Congress, or 16th, 17th, 18th, streets between San Jacinto & Colorado, you may want to check your route. That area is going to be torn up due to construction of an eight block transformation of Austin’s Capitol Complex.
The city has launched and secured funding for Phase 1 of the Texas Capitol Complex Project , scheduled to be completed by June 2022. The 1-million-square-foot, $581 million Phase One of the Texas Capitol Complex project has two main parts to it: two new office buildings and a pedestrian mall that will replace a section of Congress Avenue and include five levels of underground parking. This pedestrian-friendly street will provide plenty of green space right in the middle of Congress and provide more tourism venues for the city to hold concerts, festivals and the like.
As for the two new office buildings, details are starting to emerge. One building will be located opposite from both the Bullock museum and Blanton Museum of Art. The 14-story, 603,000-square-foot building, to be named after George H. W. Bush, will take over the surface level parking lot at 1801 Congress Ave. The new state office building will include display and performance spaces, & a cafe and food service on the first floor. Pairing with the two museums, the Bush building’s first floor will create what the state calls the “Museum Plaza,” serving as a cultural gateway to the Capitol and connected to the Capitol via the pedestrian mall. The Texas Lottery Commission is the only tenant named for this building so far.
Just south at 1601 Congress Ave., a new, unnamed, 12-story, 416,000-square-foot office building will include a state childcare facility, along with other tenants who have yet to be named.
In addition to the above construction, a new 9-story Texas Health and Human Services Commission office building is being constructed at the corner of West Guadalupe and 46th Street. The building will be built with a 7-story parking garage and should open by May 2021. According to the state, this building should save taxpayers $7.4 million in lease expenses.
