A demolition request has been filed for the historically and architecturally significant home at 2502 Park View Drive in Austin, Texas (pictured above circa 1954). City of Austin Staff strongly recommend that this home be designated a Local Historic Landmark. This petition originally asked the City of Austin Historic Landmark Commission to recommend to the Austin City Council that this house be designated a Local Historic Landmark. The Commission voted unanimously in favor of designation as the home not only meets, but exceeds criteria for architecture, historical association, and community value. Now the same request is to the City Council.

The home is the most-intact and most architecturally-significant example of the nationally-significant Austin Air-Conditioned Village, a mid-century modern subdivision built in the 1950s to test the feasibility and affordability of air-conditioning in homes affordable to middle-class buyers. This remarkably intact residence with passive cooling strategies, innovative design and construction is very much a part of Austin’s history and culture. The residence is an excellent example of the early work of local architect, Fred Day, who made significant contributions to Austin’s development, designing local landmarks such as the award-winning Faulk Library and the Teachers Retirement System of Texas building. Notable buildings he designed outside Austin include the Visitors Center at the McDonald Observatory and the Hooper-Schaeffer Fine Arts Center at Baylor University. He won multiple design awards from the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Texas Society of Architects. Fred Day produced a striking mid-century modern residence, as opposed to other more conventional ranch homes in the project.

The Austin Air-Conditioned Village was the first large-scale experiment of its kind worldwide. It was also the largest study of air-conditioning in houses, and had a particularly big impact on the Sun Belt. The National Association of Home Builders located this significant experiment appropriately in Austin, with its hot climate. The Federal Housing Association (FHA) attended the opening of the Village, and the data collected by the experiment influenced its lending practices to allow financing for modestly-priced homes with air conditioning, previously considered to be too expensive for moderate budgets. This experiment shaped how houses were built nationwide from the 1950s on, by taking good design into consideration to reduce energy consumption. The best example of this nationally-significant study should be preserved.

Please join us in our effort to help save this gem!