©2017 Patrick Y Wong of Atelier Wong Photography
The Mission
The mission for all of us who care about the Norwood House: to get the house restored to its historic exterior appearance, the surrounding historic grounds and gardens rehabilitated, and the property repurposed to serve the people of Austin as a premier, self-sustaining rental venue and community meeting space.
The Purpose
Located on City Parkland, Austin’s historic Norwood House is a public park asset, with a stunning view that could command substantial rental revenue for the taxpayers if the house was operating. But with lack of vision in past decades, and municipal budgets strained, the investment required to position Norwood to earn its own keep was never put forth.
Because the will to save Norwood was strongly established early on, and the needs of the deteriorated house became urgent over the years, many private efforts have been made to get this work done. Unfortunately, nothing about this is easy. The Norwood site is unique, dynamic, and very challenging: a cliffside 2-parcel waterfront tract of dedicated parkland, divided by a public street, in a residential neighborhood, bordered by an Interstate Highway on the east, environmentally sensitive rimrock to the west, Lady Bird Lake on the north, and an urban corridor with a future light rail stop on the south. The many overlays have been exceedingly difficult to permit as Austin has continued to boom and change.
To date, PARD still has not prioritized the restoration and maintenance of this remarkable but long-neglected property. We dearly hope new energy can come to the Norwood effort – to not only save the Norwood House and its beautiful site, but to accomplish a project that promotes an even greater mission: to preserve our town’s original, special places, before they’re ALL gone.
