We don't need no parks...

...apparently in Austin all you need is concrete, folding chairs, and free beer. Yesterday Sam and I went to the Independence Brewing Co.'s 1st Saturday Brewery Tour and Beer Tasting. The event started at 1pm and went until 3. The owner, with the required long red ponytail and short-beard they give you upon graduating from brew-master college, gave the tour. The facilities were small and charmingly manageable, which, after the three 8oz beer samples, caused a collective delusion amongst the crowd that they too wanted to open a micro-brewery. Then you could drink good beer and sit on your folding chair in the middle of an industrial park parking lot with all your friends and relations whenever you damn well pleased. From an urban planning perspective, this use of quasi-public space was eye-opening. Perhaps the fiscal conservatives are right, why spend public money on beautiful parks that will be under-utilized if, provided with free alcohol, people will happily congregate on any nasty-ass barren architectural hell-scape. I guess form does follow function.

I feel the need to mention the Frost Bank Tower. In general, I am not a fan of skyscrapers. I agree with Christopher Alexander that most buildings in a town should be 3 or 4 stories, so that one can walk up them without an elevator, and more importantly, a mother can yell from the top floor at her child playing in the street. Add to that the fact that most skyscrapers have the design aesthetics of a giant stubby calculator, I just can't help but be nostalgic for the short towns of yore (and at 5'6", perhaps I feel a camaraderie with them). But in Austin, they built a tower that looks like an owl. I remember Austin before the tower, and I remember being here shortly after it was built in 2003 and residents complaining about "the evil eye" of the owl watching o'er the city. But I do believe this building will stand the test of time. Compared to every other skyscraper in downtown Austin, this building actually looks like something. It captures the imagination in a way none of the towers do. I have yet to walk around it, and I've got a hunch the level of thoughtful design that was put into the top of building and how it relates to the skyline was not put into how it relates to the street-scape. But I'm assuming here, and we all know where that leads. The point that I want to make is, this building gives me a glimmer of hope for contemporary architecture. It's not perfect, but it's not nearly as terrible as 90% of what we've been forced to accept for the past 50 years.