Live in Downtown Austin
Condominium towers on the 1839 grid, where the Capitol's view corridors decide how tall a neighbor can build, a homestead decides the tax bill, and three public works will keep the edges under construction into the 2030s.
This guide covers the City of Austin's Downtown planning area: Edwin Waller's grid and the blocks around it, from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Lady Bird Lake and from Lamar Boulevard to I-35. The 2020 census counted 13,663 people here in 9,449 homes, 69% of the occupied ones rented, and 1,590 residents in group quarters, nearly all of them in the census category that covers shelters and people counted outdoors. What a buyer can own is almost always a condominium, taxed by five units and, unless it is a homestead, by the downtown improvement district as well. The convention center is being rebuilt until 2029, light rail is planned down Guadalupe, 3rd and Trinity Streets with construction expected from 2027, and TxDOT is lowering I-35 along the eastern edge until 2033.
Waller's grid, rebuilt in towers and still under construction
The City of Austin's Downtown neighborhood planning area, as its open data portal draws it: Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, I-35 to the east, the north shore of Lady Bird Lake to the south, and Lamar Boulevard to the west, about 1.73 square miles. The City lists it as a non-neighborhood planning area: it has no neighborhood plan, and the Downtown Austin Plan adopted in December 2011 divides it into nine districts instead, from the Core and Waterfront to Rainey Street, Waller Creek and Judges Hill. The downtown improvement district is drawn differently, stopping at 15th Street and San Antonio Street and reaching south of the lake along South Congress Avenue.
Downtown is the square mile Austin began as. In 1839 Edwin Waller laid out a grid fourteen blocks square between Shoal Creek and Waller Creek, bisected by Congress Avenue and rising from the river to Capitol Square, and the Capitol opened at its head in 1888. This guide takes the City's Downtown planning area, a little wider than the grid: Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Lady Bird Lake, Lamar Boulevard to I-35. It has no neighborhood plan; the Downtown Austin Plan of 2011 divides it into nine districts instead, from the Core to Rainey Street and Judges Hill.
The census found a tower district with shelters inside it. The 2020 count was 13,663 people in 9,449 homes. Of the 7,877 occupied, 5,465 were rented, and 456 of the empty ones were held for occasional use, the census category for second homes. Another 1,590 residents were in group quarters, 1,564 in the category that covers shelters and people counted outdoors. Two City-owned shelters, the ARCH and the Eighth Street Shelter, are downtown, and voters restored the bans on camping, sitting and lying in public places in May 2021. The Downtown Austin Alliance counted 13,976 residents in May 2026, on a boundary its release does not give; no count yet measures this one after the latest towers.
The homestead decides the bill more than the levy does. Almost everything for sale is a condominium: the appraisal district classes only 64 parcels here as single-family, 58 of them around Judges Hill. Zillow's typical value for its Downtown neighborhood was $615,461 in August 2026, lower than the $635,498 of a year earlier; the Census Bureau's survey puts the median owner-occupied value in the three tracts wholly inside this boundary between $600,000 and $778,600, with wide margins. On the 2025 rates a $615,000 unit owes the five taxing units about $10,032 a year as a homestead and $12,586 without one. The improvement district adds 9.25 cents per $100, but only above the first $500,000 and never on a homestead, so about $106 on the same unit as a rental. No public record gives the association fee, which carries the insurance, the reserves and, in towers on Austin Energy's district cooling, the chilled water. The citywide arithmetic is on the Austin page.
The Capitol decides how tall, and where. Thirty-five view corridors converge on the dome and lie over about 32% of downtown's land; inside one, no building may rise through the plane that keeps the view. Outside them the limit keeps rising: the base height for downtown zoning is 350 feet, and since 28 May 2026 two density bonus districts allow 750 or 1,200 feet in exchange for affordable housing and other benefits. A view is protected only where a corridor crosses the lot in front of it. There is no local historic district, but there are 200 City landmarks and three National Register districts, Sixth Street, Congress Avenue and Rainey Street, and Rainey shows what zoning does: rezoned for the central business district in 2004, its bungalows became bars and then towers. Outdoor music on Sixth Street and in the Warehouse District may play until 2 a.m.
Read the construction calendar with the listing. The convention center closed in April 2025 for a rebuild due to open in early 2029. Light rail is planned down the middle of Guadalupe Street to 3rd Street, then along 3rd and Trinity to a new bridge over the lake, with four downtown stations and general traffic moved to a two-way Lavaca Street; construction is expected from 2027 and the first trains in 2033, while a lawsuit over the scaled-back plan is still in the courts. TxDOT's downtown segment of I-35 runs from 2027 to 2033, lowering the main lanes. And the City's floodplain covers about 12.6% of downtown's land against FEMA's 10.4%, so an address can be in one map and not the other.
- Ask the association for its budget, reserve study, insurance renewal and any special assessment
- Apply to the Travis Central Appraisal District for the homestead exemption; the seller's capped value ends with the sale
- Check the view corridor map before paying for a view: outside a corridor the next tower may reach 750 feet
- Read the light rail design for your street: Guadalupe loses its general traffic and Lavaca becomes two-way
- Check the City's floodplain map as well as FEMA's
How Downtown Austin got here
- 1839Edwin Waller lays out the new capital on 640 acres above the Colorado River between Shoal Creek and Waller Creek: a grid fourteen blocks square, bisected by Congress Avenue, rising to Capitol Square, with four public squares, one in each quarter.
- 1888The Capitol opens at the head of Congress Avenue, 302.64 feet from the ground at its south front to the tip of the star, 14.64 feet taller than the Capitol in Washington.
- 1975Nine blocks of Sixth Street between Lavaca Street and I-35 are listed on the National Register as a historic district. Congress Avenue from 1st to 11th Street follows in 1978.
- 1983The Legislature protects views of the Capitol along defined corridors, signed into law on 3 May. The City adopts its own Capitol View Protection Ordinance in 1985.
- 1985Rainey Street, a street of bungalows between River and Driskill Streets, is listed on the National Register as a historic district in September.
- 1993Downtown property owners petition the City for a public improvement district, whose assessment pays the Downtown Austin Alliance. It is renewed in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012.
- 2004The City rezones Rainey Street from single-family to Central Business District zoning, which allows towers. The bungalows become bars, and high-rises follow.
- 2011City Council adopts the Downtown Austin Plan on 8 December, with nine districts and more than 100 recommended actions, in place of a neighborhood plan.
- 2015The Waller Creek tunnel, about 5,600 feet long and 70 feet down, carries its first flood in May. The City credits it with taking more than 28 acres of downtown out of the floodplain; an earlier City document said over 25.
- 2017The Central Library opens in October at 710 West César Chávez Street, beside Shoal Creek.
- 2020The census counts 13,663 people and 9,449 homes in the Downtown planning area. 1,590 residents live in group quarters, almost all of them in the category that covers shelters and people counted outdoors.
- 2021Voters pass Proposition B on 1 May, 90,428 to 66,292, restoring the bans on camping, sitting and lying in public areas from 11 May. Waterloo Park reopens on 14 August with the 5,000-capacity Moody Amphitheater.
- 2022The City reauthorizes the downtown improvement district on 9 June for ten years, through 2032. FEMA's flood maps showing the post-tunnel floodplain take effect on 22 September.
- 2025The Legislature removes some Capitol view corridors to make room for the University of Texas medical center on the Erwin Center site. Waterline, at 98 Red River, reaches 1,034 feet in August and becomes the tallest building in Texas. The convention center closes in April for a $1.6 billion rebuild. The City sets the district's 2026 assessment at 9.25 cents per $100 on 24 July, and moves the ARCH shelter to a new operator on 1 October.
- 2026The federal environmental review of Austin Light Rail Phase 1 is completed in January, with four downtown stations on Guadalupe, 3rd and Trinity Streets. On 28 May the Council creates two downtown density bonus districts that allow towers of up to 750 and 1,200 feet in exchange for affordable housing and other benefits. The Confluence, 13 acres of Waterloo Greenway between 4th Street and Lady Bird Lake, opens on 6 June. The Downtown Austin Alliance counts 13,976 residents and 14,164 residential units downtown, on its own boundary.
- 2027TxDOT's schedule starts the downtown segment of I-35, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Holly Street, which runs to 2033 and removes the upper decks and lowers the main lanes. The Austin Transit Partnership expects light rail construction to begin, with the first trains targeted for 2033.
- 2029The rebuilt convention center, 620,000 square feet against the old building's 365,000, is due to open early in the year.
Waterloo Greenway, three of Waller's squares and the Butler Trail
Waller Creek, the grid's eastern edge in 1839, is now Waterloo Greenway, 35 acres along 1.5 miles by the conservancy's count: Waterloo Park, reopened in 2021 with the 5,000-capacity Moody Amphitheater, and The Confluence, 13 acres from 4th Street to the lake, opened on 6 June 2026. Three of Waller's four squares are still small parks, Republic Square with its Saturday farmers' market among them, and the Butler Trail loops 10 miles around Lady Bird Lake from the foot of the grid.
What the map does not show: the lake is for paddling. Swimming and wading in it are illegal; the swim is Barton Springs Pool, about three kilometers west. Palm Park is the greenway's next piece, with construction from 2027 by the conservancy's page and 2026 by the City's plan, and the light rail bridge would take part of Waller Beach and displace the Waller Creek Boathouse.
Elsewhere in Austin, not Downtown Austin
27 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 27 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point on Lavaca Street between 5th and 6th Streets, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. Downtown the walk column is the one to read; the drive column ignores the garage at either end.
Every gym within reach
Most towers have a fitness room, paid for in the association fee. The City's gym is the Austin Recreation Center on Shoal Creek Boulevard, with a 7,000-square-foot gymnasium and a weight room. Deep Eddy Pool, the oldest in Texas, opens from mid-March to October, and Barton Springs Pool, spring water at 68 to 70 °F, is the one for winter.
- Whether the building has a fitness room and a pool, and what the fee covers
- The Austin Recreation Center, about 1.8 km northwest
- Barton Springs and Deep Eddy, both about 3.5 to 4 km west
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Austin Recreation Center open | The City's center at 1301 Shoal Creek Boulevard, rebuilt in 1986 after the 1981 flood: a 7,000-square-foot gymnasium with six basketball goals, a weight room and a dance studio. | 4–6 min |
| Deep Eddy Pool open | The oldest swimming pool in Texas, built in 1915 and filled daily with untreated aquifer water: eight lanes of 33 yards, open from mid-March to 31 October. | 6–10 min |
| Barton Springs Pool open | Three acres of spring water in Zilker Park at 68 to 70 °F, the City's pool for swimming through the winter. | 6–9 min |
| Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail open | The free option: a 10-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake from the foot of the grid, with a 7,250-foot boardwalk on the south shore. | 3–4 min |
The free option is the Butler Trail: 10 miles around Lady Bird Lake, with a 7,250-foot boardwalk on the south shore.
Mathews, O. Henry and Austin High for almost every block
Schools are the Austin Independent School District's, assigned by address. On its 2026-27 boundaries the blocks that held 12,457 of the 13,663 residents in 2020 go to Mathews Elementary in Clarksville, and nearly all of downtown goes on to O. Henry Middle and Austin High. The blocks north of the Capitol split between Bryker Woods and Lee Elementary, and Lee's go on to Kealing Middle and McCallum High. None of these is among the ten schools the board voted to close in November 2025.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mathews Elementary School | Austin Independent School District | 906 West Lynn Street, in Clarksville west of Lamar. On Austin ISD's 2026-27 boundaries it is the elementary for 208 of the planning area's census blocks, which held 12,457 of its 13,663 residents in 2020. The district rated it A for 2025. |
| Bryker Woods and Lee Elementary Schools | Austin Independent School District | The blocks north of the Capitol, between about 17th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, are split between two elementaries: the western ones, 686 residents in 2020, to Bryker Woods on Kerbey Lane, and the eastern ones, 520 residents, to Lee on Hampton Road. Both are about five kilometers north. |
| O. Henry Middle School | Austin Independent School District | 2610 West 10th Street: the middle school for every block assigned to Mathews or Bryker Woods, 13,143 of the 2020 residents. The 520 in Lee's blocks go to Kealing Middle on Pennsylvania Avenue. |
| Austin High School | Austin Independent School District | 1715 West César Chávez Street, on the lake, which the district calls the oldest continuously operating public high school in Texas: the high school for the same 13,143. The Lee blocks go to McCallum High on Sunshine Drive. |
| The 2025 consolidations | Austin Independent School District | The board voted in November 2025 to close ten schools and International High School before 2026-27. None of the schools downtown addresses are assigned to is among them. |
Check the exact address on the district's 2026-27 boundaries map before you commit, because a line runs through the blocks north of the Capitol. Austin ISD dates the closure vote to 20 November 2025 and KUT to early on 21 November.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The 90th Legislature convenes at the Capitol on 12 January 2027 and sits to 31 May, a few blocks from any unit in the grid
- The appraisal district values every unit as it stands on 1 January, and last year's tax bill is due by 31 January, with penalty and interest from 12:01 a.m. on 1 February
- Highs near 17 °C and lows near 5 °C at Camp Mabry, with about five nights at or below freezing in a normal January
- The Austin Marathon finishes on Congress Avenue in front of the Capitol; the 2027 race starts at 7 a.m. on Sunday 14 February, so check how the building's garage exits that morning
- The driest month on the 1991 to 2020 normal, 48 mm of rain, with highs near 19 °C
- A good month to hear a unit at night with the windows shut, before the patios and the festival season return
- SXSW runs from 15 to 21 March 2027, its second edition since the convention center closed for a rebuild due to finish in 2029
- The bats return to the Congress Avenue Bridge in March, and stay to late September
- Deep Eddy Pool opens for its season in mid-March, on 14 March in 2026, and highs are near 23 °C
- Highs near 27 °C and lows near 15 °C, with only two or three days reaching 32 °C in a normal April
- The appraisal notice is the one to read before the 15 May protest deadline: a buyer's first value is the market's, not the seller's capped one
- The Saturday farmers' market in Republic Square runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. all year, about 40 vendors a week
- 15 May is the deadline to protest the appraisal district's value, or 30 days after the notice arrives if that is later
- The wettest month on the normal, 128 mm at Camp Mabry, and the first of the hot ones, with about 11 days reaching 32 °C
- The downtown improvement district's budget year starts in May; the 2026-27 budget is $12.7 million
- The Legislature adjourns on 31 May 2027
- The mothers in the Congress Avenue Bridge colony, more than 1.5 million bats, give birth in June
- Highs near 34 °C, and about 24 days reaching 32 °C on the normal
- The Confluence, the Waterloo Greenway blocks from 4th Street to the lake, opened on 6 June 2026
- The Austin Symphony's free July 4th concert and fireworks at Vic Mathias Shores, across the lake, with fireworks at 9:30 p.m. and Riverside Drive closed from South First Street to Lee Barton Drive
- Highs near 36 °C, and about ten days reaching 38 °C on the normal
- The appraisal district certifies its values on 25 July, and the Council sets the next year's improvement district rate in late July; it was 24 July in 2025
- Highs near 37 °C and lows near 24 °C, with about 13 days reaching 38 °C on the normal: walk to the bus stop at 5 p.m. before you commit
- Austin ISD's 2026-27 year began on 18 August
- The taxing units set their rates before the 29 September deadline; the City's for 2026 is 0.579948 per $100, against 0.524017 for 2025
- The bat colony leaves the Congress Avenue Bridge for the south in late September
- Highs near 33 °C and 88 mm of rain, as the storms come back
- The City's emergency contract for the ARCH shelter ran to 30 September 2026, with a competitively chosen operator due from 1 October
- ACL Fest fills Zilker Park, south of the lake, on two weekends: 2 to 4 and 9 to 11 October in 2026
- The county's collection period for the year's tax opens on 1 October
- Highs near 28 °C and 99 mm of rain, the second wettest month on the normal
- The Texas Book Festival puts tents along 11th Street and Congress Avenue at the Capitol, free, on 14 and 15 November 2026
- Highs near 22 °C and lows near 10 °C, with less than one night at or below freezing on the normal
- Ask the association what the building's insurance renewal did this year before the budget meeting
- The Trail of Lights runs in Zilker Park in December, with tickets on sale in the fall
- Pay the tax bill by 31 December for a receipt that counts toward this year's federal income tax
- Highs near 18 °C, and about three nights at or below freezing on the normal
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
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About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Downtown Austin, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Austin library.