14 Apr Ice-Cream Social for Waller Creek!

http://www.austinfreeevents.com/2012/03/25/waller-creek-cleanup/

On Sunday April 8, almost 300 people gathered together to build a giraffe out of wood and zip-ties, sip and slurp on beer and Amy's Ice-Cream, and learn about the city center eyesore that sadly, is now Waller Creek.  

Nine architectural design firms from all over the world are competing for the job to change all that, and on Monday, a panel of judges will knock it down to four. One of those nine, Team ! Melk & PageSoutherlandPage hosted a community gathering at the Mohawk on Red River, just blocks away from the creek, to get a feeling for how people feel about the place.

"We wanted to create a platform for discussion," Matt Leach said, a designer from PageSoutherlandPage.

Subject to flooding for several generations due to over development and neglect of native species, the Waller Creek Conservancy hopes by 2014 to obtain the funding necessary to build an underground tunnel.  The size of a 20 ft. adult giraffe, this tunnel is meant to divert the floodwaters away from the creek and out of the floodplain.

"I'm encouraged by the community participation and involvement," Leach said.

In addition to giraffe building, kids could try on costumes, fill out "wishes" for the future of Waller Creek, and race to complete scavenger hunt info cards for a free Amy's ice-cream cone.

Greg Esparza, marketing manager for HOPE Farmer's Market and a volunteer last Sun. is excited about the opportunity this project brings for public market spaces and urban architecture.

"The best attribute of this project is the connectivity it creates between the university, LadyBird Lake and a dynamic urban environment."  Esparza said in an email.

So why build a giraffe?  "It brings people together, and we like bringing people together."  Esparza said.