I just returned from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual conference in Austin, Texas. It was a good place to hold a conference emphasizing...the importance of a sense of place.
For all of the growing city's distinctiveness - the 1870s limestone storefronts on 6th Street, for example, or the hip vintage hangouts and curious stores in SoCo - some of its finest moments came when it intersected very simply with its natural setting.
A morning on the deck at Mozart's on Lake Austin proved refreshing. Watching thousands of bats swarm forth from under the Congress Street bridge at dusk was mesmerizing.
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