Reinvestment and Adaptation Along Austin's Commercial Strips By

Landscapes of Thrift and Choreographies of Change: Reinvestment and Adaptation along Austin’s Commercial Strips by Jennifer Suzanne Minner, B.A., M.U.R.P. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2013 Dedication To Julia, Erik, Dale, and Tricia. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Michael Holleran, who has been an outstanding mentor and a beacon of knowledge and support throughout the years. I wish to thank the University of Texas at Austin faculty on my dissertation committee. Bjorn Sletto, Steven Moore, and Michael Oden provided advice, support, encouragement, and critical feedback that greatly enriched this research. Each of you helped me well beyond the call of duty! I am grateful for the participation of Richard Longstreth and Carl Abbott, dissertation committee members who provided essential external perspectives and expertise. Each dissertation committee member provided a unique perspective and critical eye that greatly improved this dissertation. I am also indebted to additional UT- Austin faculty who directly and indirectly supported this research. This list includes, but is not limited to: Barbara Brown Wilson, Robert Paterson, Elizabeth Mueller, Monica Penick, Fran Gale, Christopher Long, Karl Butzer, Jennifer Miller, and Sarah Dooling. I am so very appreciative of the interviewees who agreed to share their experiences and perspectives with me. I would like to thank the respondents who indicated that I could share their identity: Jann Alexander, Renee Benn, Frank Bomar, Derek Brown, William Burkhardt, Ricardo M. De Camps, Andrew Elder, Stuart Hampton, Daniel Houston, Michael Hsu, Randi Jenkins, Christopher Johnson, John Kelso, Isaac Kremer, Rob Lippincott, Leea Mechling, Brad Patterson, Ty Puckett, Chris Riley, Todd Sanders, Steve Sadowsky, Will Schnier, Amy Simmons, Dave Sullivan, and Abe Zimmerman. A thank you is v also due to all who agreed to participate, but who wished for their participation to remain confidential (or did not explicitly provide permission to be mentioned by name). To those who shared narratives that were not directly incorporated: I want to assure you that your participation greatly informed this research and I hope to present even more narratives in a future book! To those whose stories and insights are shared directly – I hope that I have captured the information and spirit of your narratives; I apologize for any oversights or errors in interpretation. There are many students who contributed to this project through their involvement in classes, seminars, and studios at UT-Austin. I would like to thank Betsy Frederick-Rothwell, who stepped in to take over coordination of the Preservation Green Lab survey in Austin at a crucial moment. Amanda Carpenter shared information about neon signs, which are an integral part of Austin’s cultural landscape. Thank you to the students who participated in the field trip along Burnet Road and to those who participated in the Preservation Green Lab’s survey. Thanks to the colleagues within UTSOA who provided camaraderie, encouragement, and important insights throughout this journey, especially: Shannon Halley, Josh Conrad, Elizabeth Walsh, Leah Hollstein, Andrea Roberts, Lynn Osgood, Nishtha Mehta, Jane Winslow, Sam Dodd, Alan Bush, and Meghan Kleon. I would like to thank Patrice Frey, the former director of the Sustainability Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Liz Dunn of the Preservation Green Lab, for the opportunity to participate in the Getting to 50 Survey. I appreciated the valuable vantage point that participation in the survey offered. Thank you for making the data that we collected readily available for this dissertation, as well as future research opportunities. vi Stuart Johnson and Bruce MacDougal organized a seminar on roadside preservation and shared insights from San Antonio and that fed my dissertation. Thank you for sharing San Antonio’s wealth of roadside resources. As a result of the San Antonio Conservation Society’s roadside seminar, I had the pleasure of driving Chester Liebs through miles of commercial strips in San Antonio and Austin and along Interstate 35. I would like to thank him for his kind words and profound thoughts on sustainability. I would like to thank the staff at the Austin History Center, especially Mike Miller. The collections at the Austin History Center and on the Portal to Texas History were of great value in my research. Last and most of all, I would like to thank my brilliant daughter, Julia, my incredible and devoted husband, Erik, and my dedicated and inspiring parents, Dale and Tricia, for their enthusiasm and support over the years. I simply would not have endeavored to complete this academic road trip without the sense of adventure and wonder that they have instilled and fostered in me. vii Landscapes of Thrift and Choreographies of Change: Reinvestment and Adaptation along Austin’s Commercial Strips Jennifer Suzanne Minner, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Michael Holleran Commercial strips are ubiquitous elements of the American landscape. They offer important opportunities for inquiry into the ways in which cities are adapted, preserved, and redeveloped over time. This research examines the dynamics of reinvestment along central city commercial strips in Austin, Texas. Research was aimed at understanding the relationship between reinvestment in existing commercial buildings and larger processes of redevelopment and change along commercial strips undergoing transition. Case study commercial strips were selected that had been established in the early to mid-twentieth century and that had experienced decline and subsequent reinvestment. Historic patterns of land use, transportation, and economic trends were described and related to the relatively recent growth of concentrations of local businesses and reinvestment activity along case study commercial strips. “Core samples” of preservation and adaptive reuse were examined using spatial data, building surveys, historical data, and interviews with associated actors. Additional interviews were conducted with actors who have initiated, influenced, and regulated reinvestment, including business and property owners, developers, neighborhood activists, a media correspondent, city officials, among others. This viii research details the private, public, and community-based actors who shape the character of reinvestment; the influx of new businesses and retention of iconic businesses; and conflicts and negotiations at the edges of commercial and residential districts and between public and private sectors. The dissertation relates observations along Austin’s commercial strips to four themes identified in the literature and their associated views of improvement: 1. commercial strips as “wicked problems” of land use and transportation; 2. commercial strips as cultural landscapes and roadside heritage; 3. commercial strips as concentrations of commercial properties with opportunities for sustainability and retrofitting of commercial properties; and 4. commercial strips as contested arenas of gentrification. This research highlights the importance of understanding the durability of existing land development patterns and of incorporating an understanding of the continued and adaptive use of buildings and urban fabric in land use planning. It presents emerging opportunities for preservation practice beyond standard practices of survey and landmarking. It illustrates the many ways in which actors have agency, or “choreograph” change individually and collectively, in responding to opportunities and challenges presented in the context of social and economic change. ix Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................. x List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xiii List of Figures .................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: An Overlooked Geography of Change ...........................................1 Commercial Strips as Landscapes of Thrift..............................................4 The Reader’s Path ......................................................................................11 Chapter 2: Trash, Treasure, Adaptation, and Transition: The Literature of America’s Commercial Strips ...................................................................14 From Blight, Sprawl, and Environmental Degradation to Proposals for Planning, Redevelopment, and Repair ..........................................15 Commercial Strips as Cultural Landscapes and Vernacular Treasure23 Reuse, Commercial Retrofits, and Sustainable Adaptation .................28 Gentrification along Commercial Strips .................................................33 Chapter 3: A Hybrid Methodology for Studying the Reinvestment and Re- invention of Austin’s Commercial Strips ...............................................40 Hybrid Methods, Position of this Research, and Related Theoretical Assumptions ......................................................................................42 Case Study Commercial Strips and Core Samples................................45 Actor Interviews .........................................................................................51

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