The public will have a chance on Tuesday to meet the four finalists in the Waller Creek Conservancy design competition. The winning team will be charged with creating a master plan to transform 1 1/2 miles along the creek's lower banks into an urban greenbelt stretching from East 15th Street to Lady Bird Lake along downtown Austin's eastern edge.
The free event in the Blanton Auditorium will allow citizens to view other projects the teams have designed and learn about their design philosophies.
The four finalists are CMG and Public Architecture; Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Thomas Phifer & Partners; Turenscape and Lake/Flato Architects; and Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects and Rogers Marvel Architects. Each team consists of a landscape architecture firm and design architecture firm.
The finalists' design concepts will be presented to the public Sept. 17-30. The winning team, to be chosen by jury of independent experts, will be announced Oct. 16. City planners will use the winning design as a guide.
Each design team is receiving a $100,000 honorarium.
The finalists were chosen in April after 31 submissions from design teams around the world were narrowed to nine semifinalists in January.
Three Austin philanthropists — Tom Meredith, Melanie Barnes and Melba Whatley — created the nonprofit conservancy. Last year, the members formed a public–private partnership with the city to create and implement a new design for 28 acres along the creek to be removed from the flood plain after a $146.5 million tunnel to divert its floodwaters is completed in 2014.
The conservancy's goal is to turn that area — much of which has lagged behind downtown's development boom of the past decade — into parks, public spaces and private development. Conservancy members say a rejuvenated Waller Creek will spur development on the east side of downtown that could boost property values and add significant sales tax revenue to the city's tax base.
The project was launched with a seed gift of $150,000 from the three founders.
"We are closing in on having raised $1.1 million from the board and a very small group of other donors," McDonald said.
The conservancy will launch a campaign this fall to raise $60 million or more toward the effort. The city may include money for Waller Creek improvements as one of the projects on the November bond election.
The total cost isn't yet known.
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