609 Congress Ave. has its two parking spots occupied 鈥� and you can circle the block all you want, but you won鈥檛 get a space there.
That鈥檚 because the two spots in front of the have been converted into a street patio. With the city鈥檚 blessing, Royal Blue has converted the spots as part of a pilot program testing the feasibility of future conversions.
The idea behind the street patio is to make the city more pedestrian-friendly and less auto-centric. 鈥淭he two parking spaces at 609 Congress are estimated to have housed about five cars per day total,鈥� reads a release from the office of Chris Riley, the Austin City Council鈥檚 resident urban design wonk. 鈥淚f this 鈥榮treet patio鈥� performs as successfully as the ones in other cities have, that space will be opened up to hundreds of people to use each day.鈥�
The patio is that have popped up in other cities, which similarly aim to provide urban amenities to flesh-and-blood residents instead of their metal-and-chrome counterparts. Austin previously got a taste of the plans for 609 Congress back in September, when the spaces were temporarily converted as .
Not everyone was happy about the change: neighboring business complained to the City Council about . But as the program is a pilot, the council decided the information to be garnered was a benefit to the city.
Photographer Filipa Rodrigues was on hand for the unveiling of the patio today, which was designed by urban landscape architecture firm , and engineered by local consultancy outfit . Take a look at the photos above.
