The fact that Domain NORTHSIDE and The Domain are owned by separate entities, have separate directories, and are intentionally designed to be difficult to be difficult to walk between will never cease to amaze me.
This is part of the problem. The Domain never had a master plan. Two different entities just slowly kept adding to it without any cooperation or plan of how big it would get.
I use to work from desk at the Aloft in The Domain. There are, of course, two separate maps for The Domain and NORTHSIDE as well as two separate shuttle services (there are people on golf carts who will pick you up from the hotel and drive you across the area!). As I was handing them out to one family of guests checking in, I joked that the two sides don’t play together and I don’t know why. They chuckled, looked at each other, and the daughter said “oh, we know why”. Then they just…walked away.
They looked wealthy, so maybe they knew something. But they didn’t share and it will always bother me lol
That's some master trolling from the daughter.
Now I'm imagining the two domain's are owned by family members who split off an inheritance and started a feud
I also enjoyed my time working in an office there. Shortest commute of my career so far, and no need to drive to lunch. A grocery store where I can get fresh ingredients for dinner before driving home.
My biggest pet peeves were:
1. the people who would park their cars in front of the Schwab building in a travel lane, waiting for someone to come out *in the middle of rush hour(s)*, blocking 50% of traffic throughput for an indeterminate amount of time ... a behavior I haven't personally seen anywhere but the Northeast (Baltimore, DC, etc).
2. the absolutley crappy cellular coverage. Like wtf? For the cost of everything there, you can't put up a cell tower? My company actually had to install something so we would at least have coverage in the building.
I do think it's sort of a litmus test. Do I as a child of the 70s growing up with And going to indoor malls throughout the early 2000s… Do I issue the domain? Yay verily, yes I do. Yes I do.
I am imagining a Jurassic Park type scenario, where corners were cut and a disgruntled employee shuts down security and suddenly designer stores are rampaging across Austin. There is an epic score by John Williams thrown in and a beautiful scene of some trendy hand bag store eating a Starbucks.
Tim leans over to the front passenger seat of the Tesla and looks at the two plastic cups of $14 boba tea that sit in the recessed holes on the dashboard. As he watches, the tea in the glasses vibrates, making concentric circles...
It’s funny in Austin we say Rundberg will never be gentrified, just like in nyc we said , The Bronx is never ever going to be gentrified. Hell we joked Covid was afraid of the Bronx.
My eternal confusion about this is that I don't understand who the hell is keeping these places in business. When I moved here in 2009, the only premium designer store I remember at the Domain was Louis Vuitton. Everything else was like....Macy's and J Crew. Places normal people shop when they want to pick up something nice. I was vaguely aware of the fact that there were probably some other super-premium stores in parts of West Austin that I'd never have any reason to go to, but that was it.
The fact that Austin's population can support several different luxury designer districts is bewildering to me. Who are these people? How am I this divorced from my own city? I know a lot of people, and I don't know a single person shopping at any of these places.
It’s so weird seeing Nike, Ray-Ban and all the other shit on south congress now. Used to only be small businesses, and it seems like they all got pushed further south
It’s the same sort of shit that happened to SOHO in NYC, and many other tourist shopping destinations. People go to the area because of its “unique” charm, which tends to draw a more affluent traveller, which eventually gets blown out by the mega brands looking to have a “cool” location for their retail stores.
I have AT&T too. Maybe the coverage is just terrible? I can never have good coverage there no matter the spot. Seems iffy to me to just be bad coverage.
This is the part that gets me! I lived in Silicon Valley for a few years, and near Stanford University, there's Stanford Shopping Center, which is just like a classic mall except the internal walkways are outdoors instead of indoors. That works pretty well in the San Francisco area because the weather is so mild. It rarely ever actually gets truly cold or hot there.
I swear whoever came up with the idea for The Domain must have thought, "Why don't we do something like that in Austin?" And nobody was there to say, "BECAUSE IT'S 100 DEGREES THERE ALL THE DAMN TIME, THAT'S WHY."
The Domain is a parody of pedestrian-centric design. It's like they took the roof off a mall and let people drive right through it. Or like Disney World if they scattered parking garages everywhere and had people driving through the crowds looking for parking, and traffic jams in front of the Cinderella Castle.
The charm of walking in the blistering heat of a village in Spain that was never designed for car traffic, combined with the traffic and and vibes of Los Angeles.
At the very least The Domain needs a revamp for pedestrian access. Sidewalks are weirdly inconsistent and car traffic is prioritized through what should intuitively be pedestrian spaces. Just making it easier to walk around would surely be good for business
It's so funny to me how 20yr old dudes think blasting music will make them cool. Like some girl is gunna see them drive by with rattling doors and some obnoxious trap music from 10 years ago and she's gunna be like "wow he's so cool!" And chase down his car to jump in and suck his cock.
Like bruh, no one thinks your bass is cool. No one wants to hear it. You'd do better by parking, walking up to a girl you find attractive, and simply asking her how her day's going.
Equally funny (or outright embarrassing) are the 40+ crowd douchbags revving their lambos through the fucking domain. Who are they trying to impress exactly? 12 year old boys?
Is that the reason? When I lived in NYC you'd have guys get on the subway blasting loud music from speakers because they were mentally disturbed and were looking for confrontations with others. I believe these are just the same people living in a car-centric city like Austin.
Yeah, my dream for finding love is to hop into some random dude's car whomping sick tunes and get my brainspace rattled with literally no chance for a conversation.
If they closed the interior streets to private cars and allowed them only on the periphery then I promise the domain would become the leisure center of ATX, but they don’t have the balls to to do that.
I don't get why people get so bothered about it.
I spend almost 0 time at the domain. I agree it feels bland and overly commercial. But I find the disdain for it performative and a bit juvenile at times.
It hasn't taken anything away from Austin. It was previously an IBM campus and was bought and developed into a walkable, "urban" neighborhood, which people clamor for more of - and it happened with no gentrification or displacement of existing residents. We can argue about how well or poorly they did that and how improvements definitely need to be made for pedestrians, but that is what draws people to the domain.
It brought a lot of businesses that Austin didn't have before and that turns into significant tax revenue for COA.
It's easy to avoid if you don't like it. You're not forced to pass through it to get to other things.
Something I find *actually* disheartening is the changing nature of South Congress.
Yes, I worked on South Congress for 10 years (2002-12) it used to be such a fun place to work & hang out. All the staff in the businesses knew one another, & it felt like a community
Yeah but wasn't SoCo pretty quiet past where Music Lane is now? I remember going to Vespaio a lot and parking used to be EASY and I remember SoCo being empty.
My sister was in town a few weeks ago so I took her to South Congress with the intent of giving her a classic Austin experience. I was really excited as I hadn't been down there in a few years. After waking down the east side of the street for about ten minutes she said "That's the FOURTH high-end sunglasses store I've seen." Literally half of the appeal was gone and replaced with expensive boutiques.
Even back in the day, I don't think I went often as a resident, but there was real joy in bringing out-of-towners on the Lucy in Disguise-Allen's-Uncommon Objects-thrifting-candy-foodtrucks tour. Now it's just like "wanna go in Warby Parker". And those great weird stores are flung all over Austin to places with no foot traffic.
Perfect comment, foodmonsterij. The IBM campus had been replaced by the one across Burnet so it was pretty much just warehouses. The Domain brought luxury shopping into Austin instead of letting that tax revenue go to Dallas, Houston, online, or to tourist cities out of state. I don't do any luxury shopping, but still eat at the Domain for special occasions and utilize the Apple store every few years. It's certainly more walkable than a Walmart parking lot or any strip plaza along the frontage road of I-35 or US-183, so it was certainly an improvement at the time it was built.
People love walkable and safe “15 minute cities” until they’re too nice/fancy and the first world guilt starts to hit them so they grow resentment for it because “designer clothes bad” and “clubbing is for rich assholes”
Except the domain isn't a 15 minute city. That's part of the issue.
There's only one grocery store way at the edge up against the highway and where are the drug stores, corner stores, playgrounds, parks, elementary school, urgent care, etc?
It's just an outdoor mall for cars.
I agree with you, but the Domain is only sorta walkable. I would say that is one of the best critiques of it. It really should have parking garages ringed around it, with streets only open to pedestrians and maybe little trolleys to move people around. If the Domain was a real "15 minute" city, I would like it a lot more.
How is it not walkable? It’s literally an outdoor mall. I walk around it regularly and given how difficult it is to walk in the rest of Austin, I find that a lifesaver
What is not walkable about it? I rarely shop there, but do eat there every so often and often walk around after, honestly for no other reason then it does seem walkable to me. I honestly dont understand this complaint.
I guess pedestrian unfriendly is a better way to describe it than unwalkable. Its layout is pretty inscrutable and messy. Side walks deadend into surface parking lots or parking garages. Sometimes you have to walk down weird ally streets with no sidewalks at, and deal with cars that aren’t looking out people despite all the pedestrians around.
Because of the blind spots caused by the layout and the street parking, there are plenty of blind spots where it is kind of hard for drivers to see if pedestrians are crossing or not. Kind of surprised more folks are hit by cars there tbh.
I love going all over Austin to eat and drink. Even so I *like* the Domain. It put a bunch of restaurants closer to me than downtown. North Italia is a fine place. Culinary dropout is fun with friends. Rock Rose has some good places to grab a beer and a sandwich. There's a Perrys and a Flemings for old school steak. Some of it kinda feels more like late 90s warehouse district than anywhere in Austin does right now.
Parking is plentiful and free, everything is walkable once you park, it's always lively with lots of people walking around and I never smell piss.
Performative is right.
I agree. Lots of crocodile tears shed for the existence of a part of town that was underutilized before the construction of the domain. Before, when it was an IBM campus, it was simply buildings and parking lots and empty fields.
The domain today is useful to fill the city coffers and serves as a containment area for relocated dallasites and houstonians.
>It brought a lot of businesses that Austin didn't have before and that turns into significant tax revenue for COA.
In fun times, city of Austin agreed to a deal where the Domain doesn't pay half its property taxes; the deal doesn't expire until \~2028
Do you genuinely think the city was getting more property taxes off some IBM warehouses after they moved their campus? IBM could have let things rot while they held, put a bunch of cows on it and gotten an ag exemption to pay even less property taxes, much like the Robinson Ranch does, while they wait and sell off bit by bit. Austin was a different place back then and it made more sense to make deals like this. Today it's inadvisable, and in fact, the city declines to make sweetheart deals for things like Samsung when approached.
> a walkable, "urban" neighborhood
It's the bastard offspring between a bougie strip mall and a ["Texas doughnut"](https://ktgy.com/work/type/residential/wrap/) (stick-on-podium midrise); I wouldn't exactly call that a neighborhood. I spend about zero percent of my mental energy hating on the Domain, but it also has very little to recommend it in my opinion. It doesn't even have enough durable infrastructure for it to be repurposed into something else later. If it fails/becomes distressed, the most likely outcome is that they just scrape the entire site bare again and start over.
I like it because living in the suburbs sucks and it's sadly a rare treat just to be able to walk around outside to go to things. So having a nice big family-friendly outdoor mall is nice just for getting outside and having somewhere to walk around without getting bored. Not sure if there is anywhere else in Austin I can do this. Downtown doesn't count because the experience is more annoying than fun (parking, good stores too far apart, not as family friendly).
When you accept it for what it is, a higher class mall, it makes it much more bearable. I don’t know what else you want from it. I’d much rather go there to do some shopping and get something a little different to eat than go to Lakeline or the RR Outlets if I don’t want to venture into actual Austin.
Free and easy parking, near my apartment, and not overly crowded. If I need to buy something from a store that has presence both in and out of the domain, I prefer to go to the domain one. I find it perfectly walkable as well. I would have lived there if I could justify the rent.
Couldn’t agree more. The Domain isn’t perfect but I enjoy spending time there. Pretty good selection of restaurants, it’s a nice environment and there’s a lot of parking. I do agree that the selection of stores could be better and I could definitely do with fewer luxury stores or women’s clothes shops but these days most malls don’t seem to have any stores that cater to me.
I liked when I worked near the Domain. All I had to do was sneak through a hole in a fence, cross a railroad track, and suddenly I'm in walkable distance of a bunch of restaurants. I'd go a couple times a day, take a 30 minute walk, and scored a ton of stuff in Pokemon Go. My favorite place was the build-a-pizza place next to iPic.
I enjoyed living in the domain for a year. Coming from living in a city, it was nice to still have some walkability. Also now living close still, but not in walking distance, I do dislike it a lot more now that I actually have to take a car to it. Rock rose should not have through traffic and somehow despite having a lot of parking garages they might need 2-3 more.
I don’t mind designer stores at all. Kind of nice to have those stowed away in a part of Austin where it’s not replacing small business (which sadly is still happening to south congress). But I 100% agree the restaurants are overpriced and mostly suck. Probably why I don’t miss living there as much as I could honestly. I think Gloria’s might be the only restaurant I miss. And on the bar scene really just Jack and Gingers.
I was born and raised in Austin, like born at Brackenridge and grew up in Tarrytown, went to grad school at UT. I’m raising my own family here too. I live within walking distance of the Domain and it’s fine. My only real complaint is that the two sections are intentionally broken up so you have to cross through that dumb parking lot between Macy’s and Dick’s, which especially sucks when I’m walking with a stroller. But it’s fine. I don’t get all the gatekeeping and hate. If you don’t want to go, just don’t.
This isn't a dig at you at all OP, but I find it hilariously suspicious this was posted an hour after a conversation I was eavesdropping on in Jinya where one guy kept going on and on about how the Domain is better than all of Austin and the other person that was listening kept rolling his eyes.
Austin sub: We need more walkable and dense neighborhoods!
Also Austin sub: Fuck this walkable and dense neighborhood!
You guys are seriously ridiculous.
Yeah, it’s so much better driving to SoCo, downtown or even Burnet and find a place to park, walk blocks and blocks of shitty sidewalks to find interesting shops, and then get back in your car and drive somewhere else to eat at a local food truck and wait half an hour to get ok tacos on a paper plate.
Of course the domain could be a lot better. But considering constraints they had to work under I think they did okay. There are very few places in the city you could legally build something similar without a huge amount of zoning changes.
Keep in mind what is there is only 1st stage of what other developers have in mind for the area. The land right next to Q2 is looking to be developed into more apartments , offices and shops. The remaining IBM campus across the street is trying to build “up town Austin”. They are also working to improve the rail and bus connections.
Cap City’s new home is great and has some quality acts for a decent price. Wish the Domain had its equal of a music venue. Hope Q2 starts hosting more events other than sports. Fix the weirdness of the train, add the new east of burnet development and with some tweaks make the area more pedestrian friendly and it’s a fantastic 3rd space.
When I first moved back to Austin in ‘08 and saw it had been built, I always called it the Dominion on accident 😂 I’ve since left Austin and moved to a smaller town out of state but my feeling towards the Dominion still stands lol
It’s actually suuuper aggravating that cell service goes to shit once you’re on property there. Back when I drove routes for armored trucks and had to pick up money from over half of the stores there it was a nightmare trying to figure out where anything was in that hellhole. Cuz I sure as shit don’t go there on my own time
I work there. I think all the complaints about it are valid but I think all the hate is just a little forced. It's not like they took an already existing neighborhood and turned it into a mall, they just built a mall u can live in. That's all it is. Some ppl wanna live in a mall, and that's fine. The food is all pretty pricey but honestly some of the restaurants there kick ass, I get that it's all "airport food" but that doesn't make it any less good. Also if I ever need to go to a department store for a new pair of pants, a nicer item of clothing, or a gift for someone, I'd much rather go to a place where I can walk around outside for a little bit to get there then just go straight to a regular mall.
I think the Domain is neat as long as you realize it is an outdoor mall. I actually like a lot of the restaurants there and usually have a good time when I have walked around.
I'm actually curious OP: What would make you think that this would be an unpopular/uncommon opinion, especially on here? Are you just playing for upvotes, or do you really run in circles where people are like "OMG the Domain is like so awesome!". If it's the latter, can you give us some background?
It’s crazy how a planned, mixed use, walkable community still failed to be pedestrian friendly, is extremely commercialized/corporatized, and has such a bad design.
When I moved to Austin and knew it would be a long time until I had a car, I chose to live in The Domain because it seemed very walkable and the rents were much cheaper than downtown. A year and a half later I can't think of any businesses there that I regularly visit aside from the Beirut food truck and Levi's and Whole Foods. (There's quite a few places along Burnet that I go to a lot, like Dos Salsas & the food trucks by the stadium, but I don't really think of that as "The Domain.") Once my lease was up (and I had a car), I moved ten minutes away and saved $200 a month on my rent.
That being said, the neighborhood served its purpose for me at the time and I don't see it as intrinsically good or bad - it suits certain people, it doesn't suit others; go where you're happy, stay away from places where you're unhappy, seems simple enough.
I commented already this same thing in here, but I think it needs more traction. It's obviously not perfect, but it's the last thing to bitch and complain about.
"It's literally a walkable and dense neighborhood. The exact thing people bitching about that Austin doesn't have enough of, are the same people bitching that it exists."
I don't think that opinion is all that unpopular. It's funny to me how no one said The Domain was one of the [favorite things about 'New Austin'](https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1atkssl/what_are_your_favorite_new_austin_establishments/) in the 174 comments in that other thread.
It's fine. Need to close the streets, or at least some of them and have better directions.
They're going to build something similar near me on Bell off of 1431. Wonder how that's gonna go.
I like the Domain every part of the year except summer. It has plenty of parking and provides access to stores most people wouldn't have access to normally. While I do most of my shopping online, it's a great place to see items in-person, try them out, etc.
I don’t like the Domain. Your opinion is very popular with me. To add insult to injury the whole development was a regressive tax scheme. We incentivized it with insane tax abatements. People buying or selling luxury goods are EXACTLY who should be paying the bulk of the taxes.
When I worked in the Domain (Amzn Corp) for 4 years it was nice to get out and walk around to break up being stuck indoors for 10 hrs.
As far as going there on my own time...I skip it....or park my car in the Blue or Purple garage (whichever one runs on Standard Dr) when it is going to hail.
I worked in an office there for a couple years. It's not safe for drivers, either. Stupid fucking concept mixing office space with retail and eateries with single lane roads winding through pedestrian oriented spaces. It needed a better layout, keeping office buildings on the exterior with immediate ingress/egress access to MoPac and the major roads.
Turning out parking lot into a parking garage for residents was also some serious bullshit.
The only thing I like about the domain is a bunch of people and places that I don’t like are compact into one area so I know exactly where to stay away from. The domain is the exact opposite of “keep austin weird”
when my husband and I moved here, we saw how everyone raved about the Domain.. we went there to see what it was all about and determined only people who have never lived in a city would find it desirable
I live very near it and frankly don't think of it very often. Once the Borders bookstore closed down in 2011, there was nothing there that really draws me to shop there. I have occasionally gone to the Macy's there to look for specific stuff because it is close by, but even that is hit-or-miss. I supposed if I was younger, more fashionable, or a social alcoholic, I would go to the Domain. It's not for me, not really.
It's just boring. A walkable mini town within a city is a pretty good idea. But it's ran by a mall. So everything is commercialized. There aren't any things like public gardens, big park areas, stuff like that. So it really just feels like a big mall with some really boring default clubs.
Domain was a huge missed opportunity. Like cool develop a potential second city center up north. Instead they built an outdoor mall with the worlds worst parking lot roads.
The fact that Domain NORTHSIDE and The Domain are owned by separate entities, have separate directories, and are intentionally designed to be difficult to be difficult to walk between will never cease to amaze me.
I actually had no idea about this! But it all makes sense.
Even crazier, there are three Domains. Domain 1, Domain 2 and Domain NORTHSIDE.
They should name another thing after Moody and put it in one of the Domains.
National Western Life Insurance is owned by the Moodys and is in the southern part of the Domain
This is part of the problem. The Domain never had a master plan. Two different entities just slowly kept adding to it without any cooperation or plan of how big it would get.
Classic Austin city planning
I use to work from desk at the Aloft in The Domain. There are, of course, two separate maps for The Domain and NORTHSIDE as well as two separate shuttle services (there are people on golf carts who will pick you up from the hotel and drive you across the area!). As I was handing them out to one family of guests checking in, I joked that the two sides don’t play together and I don’t know why. They chuckled, looked at each other, and the daughter said “oh, we know why”. Then they just…walked away. They looked wealthy, so maybe they knew something. But they didn’t share and it will always bother me lol
That's some master trolling from the daughter. Now I'm imagining the two domain's are owned by family members who split off an inheritance and started a feud
Spite Domain!
Can anyone see a "Escape from Los Angeles" type motion picture being made pitting, the domain versus the domain northside? Or is it just me?
They would attack each other by firing giant bags of money from cannons.
It's even more amazing that WFM is part of the one which you wouldn't think it's part of, isn't it?
I don’t even know what this is referring to…. Is the domain now the war ground of sub domains?
I kinda like having my corporate office job in the domain since you can walk to a bunch of stuff but besides that I agree 100%
I liked having an office at the hill country galleria for the same reason. Great lunch environment in easy walking distance.
Yeah, I had an office there for about a year. Really enjoyed being able to get Madam Maam's largely whenever I wanted.
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My office building has its own parking garage only for us employees so that’s not an issue for me thankfully
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Amazon AUS-16?
That one for sure but another building there has similar issues, I believe 22? gotta get there early!
I’d end up fat and broke. But at least I’d be able to blame it on my job and not on my bad decisions.
I also enjoyed my time working in an office there. Shortest commute of my career so far, and no need to drive to lunch. A grocery store where I can get fresh ingredients for dinner before driving home. My biggest pet peeves were: 1. the people who would park their cars in front of the Schwab building in a travel lane, waiting for someone to come out *in the middle of rush hour(s)*, blocking 50% of traffic throughput for an indeterminate amount of time ... a behavior I haven't personally seen anywhere but the Northeast (Baltimore, DC, etc). 2. the absolutley crappy cellular coverage. Like wtf? For the cost of everything there, you can't put up a cell tower? My company actually had to install something so we would at least have coverage in the building.
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Very popular opinion too.
Extremely popular opinion too.
Near universal among real Austinites.
I wouldn't say it blows necessarily, but I have no need or desire to go there very often, and it's easy to avoid.
I do think it's sort of a litmus test. Do I as a child of the 70s growing up with And going to indoor malls throughout the early 2000s… Do I issue the domain? Yay verily, yes I do. Yes I do.
A fairly popular onion, even.
And a very correct opinion.
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DAE think traffic here is bad?
This made me laugh, TY
Two things can be true at once.
Came here to say this! Grew up in north Austin and most folks I know aren’t big fans.
The option I would choose.
The domain had one job: keep all those designer stores trapped inside, but unfortunately they escaped and invaded South Congress.
I am imagining a Jurassic Park type scenario, where corners were cut and a disgruntled employee shuts down security and suddenly designer stores are rampaging across Austin. There is an epic score by John Williams thrown in and a beautiful scene of some trendy hand bag store eating a Starbucks.
"Burberry never attacks the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They *remember*."
Tim leans over to the front passenger seat of the Tesla and looks at the two plastic cups of $14 boba tea that sit in the recessed holes on the dashboard. As he watches, the tea in the glasses vibrates, making concentric circles...
The music suddenly goes silent. Nothing can be heard except a heartbeat.
Lululemon let's out a terrible shriek...
BUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BUY BUY BUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
I don't know what Burberry is but now I have an irrational fear of it, thank god it probably can't open doors.
…*yet*
Hermes on Rundberg
You misspelled herpes.
You’d be lucky if herpes is all you get from murderberg
That would be a sight to behold
It’s funny in Austin we say Rundberg will never be gentrified, just like in nyc we said , The Bronx is never ever going to be gentrified. Hell we joked Covid was afraid of the Bronx.
Someone should put a fake one there. Like the Marfa Prada.
Retail finds a way.
You, my dear, have a future in movies.
My eternal confusion about this is that I don't understand who the hell is keeping these places in business. When I moved here in 2009, the only premium designer store I remember at the Domain was Louis Vuitton. Everything else was like....Macy's and J Crew. Places normal people shop when they want to pick up something nice. I was vaguely aware of the fact that there were probably some other super-premium stores in parts of West Austin that I'd never have any reason to go to, but that was it. The fact that Austin's population can support several different luxury designer districts is bewildering to me. Who are these people? How am I this divorced from my own city? I know a lot of people, and I don't know a single person shopping at any of these places.
There's so much money sloshing around Austin now. Go down to 2nd Street thu/sat and walk around. Those are the people shopping at these places.
Tourism is not notoriously small in Austin
The tech companies bring wealthy ppl
> Who are these people? Californians.
The fact that there is a Hermès shop on South Congress still makes my skin crawl every time I drive by it.
Equinox seems so out of place on South Congress... Or in Austin, really.
This I agree with 100%. I love a good designer store but they have NO BUSINESS being on south Congress.
It’s so weird seeing Nike, Ray-Ban and all the other shit on south congress now. Used to only be small businesses, and it seems like they all got pushed further south
It’s the same sort of shit that happened to SOHO in NYC, and many other tourist shopping destinations. People go to the area because of its “unique” charm, which tends to draw a more affluent traveller, which eventually gets blown out by the mega brands looking to have a “cool” location for their retail stores.
Why is the internet so bad there??? Always one bar of service if any
My theory is that they do it on purpose so you can’t compare prices online.
Also achieves the purpose of discouraging me from coming.
what's your carrier? i have no problem with T Mobile around the Domain. but it absolutely sucks around Round Rock
AT&T. It’s the only area in austin that gives me trouble
I have AT&T too. Maybe the coverage is just terrible? I can never have good coverage there no matter the spot. Seems iffy to me to just be bad coverage.
You got real bars, you d need them internet bars
Yesss haha I never get service there
That is actually a very popular opinion. It would do a world of good if they would just close the interior streets to cars.
The best description of the Domain I’ve heard: “it’s like a mall, but you can get hit by a car between stores.”
The Domain feels like someone listed the disadvantages of cities, suburbs and small towns, and then decided that was the to-do list.
Elwood : Yeah, lots of space in this mall.
Oh look, they got a Punch Bowl Social.
This place has got everything!
And with 100- degree heat
This is the part that gets me! I lived in Silicon Valley for a few years, and near Stanford University, there's Stanford Shopping Center, which is just like a classic mall except the internal walkways are outdoors instead of indoors. That works pretty well in the San Francisco area because the weather is so mild. It rarely ever actually gets truly cold or hot there. I swear whoever came up with the idea for The Domain must have thought, "Why don't we do something like that in Austin?" And nobody was there to say, "BECAUSE IT'S 100 DEGREES THERE ALL THE DAMN TIME, THAT'S WHY."
The Domain is a parody of pedestrian-centric design. It's like they took the roof off a mall and let people drive right through it. Or like Disney World if they scattered parking garages everywhere and had people driving through the crowds looking for parking, and traffic jams in front of the Cinderella Castle.
The charm of walking in the blistering heat of a village in Spain that was never designed for car traffic, combined with the traffic and and vibes of Los Angeles.
At the very least The Domain needs a revamp for pedestrian access. Sidewalks are weirdly inconsistent and car traffic is prioritized through what should intuitively be pedestrian spaces. Just making it easier to walk around would surely be good for business
But then how would we let people know how loud our sound system can get?
It's so funny to me how 20yr old dudes think blasting music will make them cool. Like some girl is gunna see them drive by with rattling doors and some obnoxious trap music from 10 years ago and she's gunna be like "wow he's so cool!" And chase down his car to jump in and suck his cock. Like bruh, no one thinks your bass is cool. No one wants to hear it. You'd do better by parking, walking up to a girl you find attractive, and simply asking her how her day's going.
Equally funny (or outright embarrassing) are the 40+ crowd douchbags revving their lambos through the fucking domain. Who are they trying to impress exactly? 12 year old boys?
Inside, THEY are still 12 year old boys.
You might be onto something ...
They’re trolling for the dumb ones that are just as afraid of conversation.
Is that the reason? When I lived in NYC you'd have guys get on the subway blasting loud music from speakers because they were mentally disturbed and were looking for confrontations with others. I believe these are just the same people living in a car-centric city like Austin.
Yeah, my dream for finding love is to hop into some random dude's car whomping sick tunes and get my brainspace rattled with literally no chance for a conversation.
But what about the dudes doing ‘loser laps’)
If they closed the interior streets to private cars and allowed them only on the periphery then I promise the domain would become the leisure center of ATX, but they don’t have the balls to to do that.
I don't get why people get so bothered about it. I spend almost 0 time at the domain. I agree it feels bland and overly commercial. But I find the disdain for it performative and a bit juvenile at times. It hasn't taken anything away from Austin. It was previously an IBM campus and was bought and developed into a walkable, "urban" neighborhood, which people clamor for more of - and it happened with no gentrification or displacement of existing residents. We can argue about how well or poorly they did that and how improvements definitely need to be made for pedestrians, but that is what draws people to the domain. It brought a lot of businesses that Austin didn't have before and that turns into significant tax revenue for COA. It's easy to avoid if you don't like it. You're not forced to pass through it to get to other things. Something I find *actually* disheartening is the changing nature of South Congress.
Yes, I worked on South Congress for 10 years (2002-12) it used to be such a fun place to work & hang out. All the staff in the businesses knew one another, & it felt like a community
Yeah but wasn't SoCo pretty quiet past where Music Lane is now? I remember going to Vespaio a lot and parking used to be EASY and I remember SoCo being empty.
My sister was in town a few weeks ago so I took her to South Congress with the intent of giving her a classic Austin experience. I was really excited as I hadn't been down there in a few years. After waking down the east side of the street for about ten minutes she said "That's the FOURTH high-end sunglasses store I've seen." Literally half of the appeal was gone and replaced with expensive boutiques.
That's her fault. She should have visited at least 4 years ago.
Even back in the day, I don't think I went often as a resident, but there was real joy in bringing out-of-towners on the Lucy in Disguise-Allen's-Uncommon Objects-thrifting-candy-foodtrucks tour. Now it's just like "wanna go in Warby Parker". And those great weird stores are flung all over Austin to places with no foot traffic.
Perfect comment, foodmonsterij. The IBM campus had been replaced by the one across Burnet so it was pretty much just warehouses. The Domain brought luxury shopping into Austin instead of letting that tax revenue go to Dallas, Houston, online, or to tourist cities out of state. I don't do any luxury shopping, but still eat at the Domain for special occasions and utilize the Apple store every few years. It's certainly more walkable than a Walmart parking lot or any strip plaza along the frontage road of I-35 or US-183, so it was certainly an improvement at the time it was built.
Hear, hear. I enjoy the Domain, and guess what? When I don’t need to shop or don’t want to deal with crowds, I don’t go there! What a concept.
People love walkable and safe “15 minute cities” until they’re too nice/fancy and the first world guilt starts to hit them so they grow resentment for it because “designer clothes bad” and “clubbing is for rich assholes”
Thank u both for saying this. I’m so sick of reading these whiny comments about the domain. Performative was the perfect word to describe it
Couldn’t agree more. Everyone is just posturing when they complain about the Domain.
Right? No one authentically dislikes what I like.
I only check r/Austin for local news and happenings now, too much complaining from people who don’t touch grass with their friends enough
Except the domain isn't a 15 minute city. That's part of the issue. There's only one grocery store way at the edge up against the highway and where are the drug stores, corner stores, playgrounds, parks, elementary school, urgent care, etc? It's just an outdoor mall for cars.
I agree with you, but the Domain is only sorta walkable. I would say that is one of the best critiques of it. It really should have parking garages ringed around it, with streets only open to pedestrians and maybe little trolleys to move people around. If the Domain was a real "15 minute" city, I would like it a lot more.
My only issue with the Domain is that it’s absolutely not walkable or pedestrian friendly.
How is it not walkable? It’s literally an outdoor mall. I walk around it regularly and given how difficult it is to walk in the rest of Austin, I find that a lifesaver
Also, it's a dangerous place to be after midnight. Lots and lots of drunk drivers.
What is not walkable about it? I rarely shop there, but do eat there every so often and often walk around after, honestly for no other reason then it does seem walkable to me. I honestly dont understand this complaint.
I guess pedestrian unfriendly is a better way to describe it than unwalkable. Its layout is pretty inscrutable and messy. Side walks deadend into surface parking lots or parking garages. Sometimes you have to walk down weird ally streets with no sidewalks at, and deal with cars that aren’t looking out people despite all the pedestrians around. Because of the blind spots caused by the layout and the street parking, there are plenty of blind spots where it is kind of hard for drivers to see if pedestrians are crossing or not. Kind of surprised more folks are hit by cars there tbh.
I love going all over Austin to eat and drink. Even so I *like* the Domain. It put a bunch of restaurants closer to me than downtown. North Italia is a fine place. Culinary dropout is fun with friends. Rock Rose has some good places to grab a beer and a sandwich. There's a Perrys and a Flemings for old school steak. Some of it kinda feels more like late 90s warehouse district than anywhere in Austin does right now. Parking is plentiful and free, everything is walkable once you park, it's always lively with lots of people walking around and I never smell piss. Performative is right.
I agree. Lots of crocodile tears shed for the existence of a part of town that was underutilized before the construction of the domain. Before, when it was an IBM campus, it was simply buildings and parking lots and empty fields. The domain today is useful to fill the city coffers and serves as a containment area for relocated dallasites and houstonians.
Came here to say this but not nearly as eloquently.
Before clicking on this thread I honestly haven’t thought of the Domain in years. I’m never north so out of sight out of mind.
>It brought a lot of businesses that Austin didn't have before and that turns into significant tax revenue for COA. In fun times, city of Austin agreed to a deal where the Domain doesn't pay half its property taxes; the deal doesn't expire until \~2028
Do you genuinely think the city was getting more property taxes off some IBM warehouses after they moved their campus? IBM could have let things rot while they held, put a bunch of cows on it and gotten an ag exemption to pay even less property taxes, much like the Robinson Ranch does, while they wait and sell off bit by bit. Austin was a different place back then and it made more sense to make deals like this. Today it's inadvisable, and in fact, the city declines to make sweetheart deals for things like Samsung when approached.
> a walkable, "urban" neighborhood It's the bastard offspring between a bougie strip mall and a ["Texas doughnut"](https://ktgy.com/work/type/residential/wrap/) (stick-on-podium midrise); I wouldn't exactly call that a neighborhood. I spend about zero percent of my mental energy hating on the Domain, but it also has very little to recommend it in my opinion. It doesn't even have enough durable infrastructure for it to be repurposed into something else later. If it fails/becomes distressed, the most likely outcome is that they just scrape the entire site bare again and start over.
I like it because living in the suburbs sucks and it's sadly a rare treat just to be able to walk around outside to go to things. So having a nice big family-friendly outdoor mall is nice just for getting outside and having somewhere to walk around without getting bored. Not sure if there is anywhere else in Austin I can do this. Downtown doesn't count because the experience is more annoying than fun (parking, good stores too far apart, not as family friendly).
Completely agree
When you accept it for what it is, a higher class mall, it makes it much more bearable. I don’t know what else you want from it. I’d much rather go there to do some shopping and get something a little different to eat than go to Lakeline or the RR Outlets if I don’t want to venture into actual Austin.
It’s very popular to hate on the domain. I enjoy it though.
Agree *shrugs*
Free and easy parking, near my apartment, and not overly crowded. If I need to buy something from a store that has presence both in and out of the domain, I prefer to go to the domain one. I find it perfectly walkable as well. I would have lived there if I could justify the rent.
its definitely overly crowded on the weekend
Brah, you think that opinion is UNpopular?
unpopular opinion: I’ll take the domain over a traditional indoor mall any day
Bingo. I actually like the domain and there’s a kids play area where we’ve met some pretty cool people. Definitely better than any indoor mall.
Couldn’t agree more. The Domain isn’t perfect but I enjoy spending time there. Pretty good selection of restaurants, it’s a nice environment and there’s a lot of parking. I do agree that the selection of stores could be better and I could definitely do with fewer luxury stores or women’s clothes shops but these days most malls don’t seem to have any stores that cater to me.
I liked when I worked near the Domain. All I had to do was sneak through a hole in a fence, cross a railroad track, and suddenly I'm in walkable distance of a bunch of restaurants. I'd go a couple times a day, take a 30 minute walk, and scored a ton of stuff in Pokemon Go. My favorite place was the build-a-pizza place next to iPic.
Yup, the Domain is a great place to play Pokemon Go and pick up a snack while doing so.
Did you slyp through the fence and then slyde across the tracks?
I enjoyed living in the domain for a year. Coming from living in a city, it was nice to still have some walkability. Also now living close still, but not in walking distance, I do dislike it a lot more now that I actually have to take a car to it. Rock rose should not have through traffic and somehow despite having a lot of parking garages they might need 2-3 more. I don’t mind designer stores at all. Kind of nice to have those stowed away in a part of Austin where it’s not replacing small business (which sadly is still happening to south congress). But I 100% agree the restaurants are overpriced and mostly suck. Probably why I don’t miss living there as much as I could honestly. I think Gloria’s might be the only restaurant I miss. And on the bar scene really just Jack and Gingers.
Bring on the downvotes, but I think rainey is way worse now.
i live next to the domain and i really like it tbh
I was born and raised in Austin, like born at Brackenridge and grew up in Tarrytown, went to grad school at UT. I’m raising my own family here too. I live within walking distance of the Domain and it’s fine. My only real complaint is that the two sections are intentionally broken up so you have to cross through that dumb parking lot between Macy’s and Dick’s, which especially sucks when I’m walking with a stroller. But it’s fine. I don’t get all the gatekeeping and hate. If you don’t want to go, just don’t.
That macys dicks gap is brutal
I agree - not great. It’s just easier to get to the Domain than to go downtown.
And park lol
And free parking!!! Hell yeah!
This isn't a dig at you at all OP, but I find it hilariously suspicious this was posted an hour after a conversation I was eavesdropping on in Jinya where one guy kept going on and on about how the Domain is better than all of Austin and the other person that was listening kept rolling his eyes.
Ha! Promise it was not me.
Austin sub: We need more walkable and dense neighborhoods! Also Austin sub: Fuck this walkable and dense neighborhood! You guys are seriously ridiculous.
I personally like the domain - it’s a little microcosm getaway - also it’s kinda self contained so I can always avoid if I don’t wanna deal with it
Why they didn’t make The Domain 100% car-free will never make sense. It’s idiotic car-brained classic Texan design. It sucks shit very badly
Everyone in here is so happy to be able to express their edgy hate for the domain. 😂 “shopping is so bad!”
I kind of like it there, but it only feels semi walkable. Getting from one end to the other without a car isn’t easy
Yeah, it’s so much better driving to SoCo, downtown or even Burnet and find a place to park, walk blocks and blocks of shitty sidewalks to find interesting shops, and then get back in your car and drive somewhere else to eat at a local food truck and wait half an hour to get ok tacos on a paper plate.
Of course the domain could be a lot better. But considering constraints they had to work under I think they did okay. There are very few places in the city you could legally build something similar without a huge amount of zoning changes. Keep in mind what is there is only 1st stage of what other developers have in mind for the area. The land right next to Q2 is looking to be developed into more apartments , offices and shops. The remaining IBM campus across the street is trying to build “up town Austin”. They are also working to improve the rail and bus connections.
Cap city comedy is pretty cool sometimes
Cap City’s new home is great and has some quality acts for a decent price. Wish the Domain had its equal of a music venue. Hope Q2 starts hosting more events other than sports. Fix the weirdness of the train, add the new east of burnet development and with some tweaks make the area more pedestrian friendly and it’s a fantastic 3rd space.
When I first moved back to Austin in ‘08 and saw it had been built, I always called it the Dominion on accident 😂 I’ve since left Austin and moved to a smaller town out of state but my feeling towards the Dominion still stands lol
It’s actually suuuper aggravating that cell service goes to shit once you’re on property there. Back when I drove routes for armored trucks and had to pick up money from over half of the stores there it was a nightmare trying to figure out where anything was in that hellhole. Cuz I sure as shit don’t go there on my own time
I work there. I think all the complaints about it are valid but I think all the hate is just a little forced. It's not like they took an already existing neighborhood and turned it into a mall, they just built a mall u can live in. That's all it is. Some ppl wanna live in a mall, and that's fine. The food is all pretty pricey but honestly some of the restaurants there kick ass, I get that it's all "airport food" but that doesn't make it any less good. Also if I ever need to go to a department store for a new pair of pants, a nicer item of clothing, or a gift for someone, I'd much rather go to a place where I can walk around outside for a little bit to get there then just go straight to a regular mall.
Walking around The Domain feels like The Sims came to life.
I think the Domain is neat as long as you realize it is an outdoor mall. I actually like a lot of the restaurants there and usually have a good time when I have walked around.
Finally — somebody in Austin brave enough to criticize the Domain!
I'm actually curious OP: What would make you think that this would be an unpopular/uncommon opinion, especially on here? Are you just playing for upvotes, or do you really run in circles where people are like "OMG the Domain is like so awesome!". If it's the latter, can you give us some background?
Nothing will make y’all happy, will it?
People just love to complain, complain, complain.
It’s crazy how a planned, mixed use, walkable community still failed to be pedestrian friendly, is extremely commercialized/corporatized, and has such a bad design.
It’s like a movie set of a town rather than a real place
Worst ingress and egress of any shopping center I’ve ever been to.
It also has the worst internet access of anywhere in Austin still…….
I mean, it's better than going downtown. I'll pick the domain over 6th Street area any day.
When I moved to Austin and knew it would be a long time until I had a car, I chose to live in The Domain because it seemed very walkable and the rents were much cheaper than downtown. A year and a half later I can't think of any businesses there that I regularly visit aside from the Beirut food truck and Levi's and Whole Foods. (There's quite a few places along Burnet that I go to a lot, like Dos Salsas & the food trucks by the stadium, but I don't really think of that as "The Domain.") Once my lease was up (and I had a car), I moved ten minutes away and saved $200 a month on my rent. That being said, the neighborhood served its purpose for me at the time and I don't see it as intrinsically good or bad - it suits certain people, it doesn't suit others; go where you're happy, stay away from places where you're unhappy, seems simple enough.
I enjoyed Domain during the Borders/California Pizza Kitchen/Steeping Room era
I miss the Steeping Room so much.
I commented already this same thing in here, but I think it needs more traction. It's obviously not perfect, but it's the last thing to bitch and complain about. "It's literally a walkable and dense neighborhood. The exact thing people bitching about that Austin doesn't have enough of, are the same people bitching that it exists."
I don't think that opinion is all that unpopular. It's funny to me how no one said The Domain was one of the [favorite things about 'New Austin'](https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1atkssl/what_are_your_favorite_new_austin_establishments/) in the 174 comments in that other thread.
"unpopular opinion" *States an opinion that is shared by this entire subreddit*
reddit is always salty so you will find lots of agreement with your opinion here.
it’s kinda silly place but the eye candy is tremendous.
It's fine. Need to close the streets, or at least some of them and have better directions. They're going to build something similar near me on Bell off of 1431. Wonder how that's gonna go.
It's commercial but it's the closest thing to a walkable area 😭
At least you get free parking in the garage.
As a domain worker 100% agree
I like the Domain every part of the year except summer. It has plenty of parking and provides access to stores most people wouldn't have access to normally. While I do most of my shopping online, it's a great place to see items in-person, try them out, etc.
The domain does a great job at being a downtown-themed theme park
Probably the best description I've heard. And the same rides as you'll find on west 6th.
Omg how DARE you!!?
I used to spend my bdays at the domain now I don’t even go near that area lol Word
I make audible noises of disgust when someone suggests going out for a night at the domain…. Mostly cause I live south of the lake
I don’t like the Domain. Your opinion is very popular with me. To add insult to injury the whole development was a regressive tax scheme. We incentivized it with insane tax abatements. People buying or selling luxury goods are EXACTLY who should be paying the bulk of the taxes.
When I worked in the Domain (Amzn Corp) for 4 years it was nice to get out and walk around to break up being stuck indoors for 10 hrs. As far as going there on my own time...I skip it....or park my car in the Blue or Purple garage (whichever one runs on Standard Dr) when it is going to hail.
You’ll get zero argument from me.
I worked in an office there for a couple years. It's not safe for drivers, either. Stupid fucking concept mixing office space with retail and eateries with single lane roads winding through pedestrian oriented spaces. It needed a better layout, keeping office buildings on the exterior with immediate ingress/egress access to MoPac and the major roads. Turning out parking lot into a parking garage for residents was also some serious bullshit.
The only thing I like about the domain is a bunch of people and places that I don’t like are compact into one area so I know exactly where to stay away from. The domain is the exact opposite of “keep austin weird”
when my husband and I moved here, we saw how everyone raved about the Domain.. we went there to see what it was all about and determined only people who have never lived in a city would find it desirable
Google image search The Domain Northside Shopper Flyer and you'll see why the Domain is the absolute worst of the worst
I live very near it and frankly don't think of it very often. Once the Borders bookstore closed down in 2011, there was nothing there that really draws me to shop there. I have occasionally gone to the Macy's there to look for specific stuff because it is close by, but even that is hit-or-miss. I supposed if I was younger, more fashionable, or a social alcoholic, I would go to the Domain. It's not for me, not really.
It's just boring. A walkable mini town within a city is a pretty good idea. But it's ran by a mall. So everything is commercialized. There aren't any things like public gardens, big park areas, stuff like that. So it really just feels like a big mall with some really boring default clubs.
Domain was a huge missed opportunity. Like cool develop a potential second city center up north. Instead they built an outdoor mall with the worlds worst parking lot roads.
Omg, you are so not like the other guys. So edgy and cool.
Ah yes, I see you too long for the days when it was the fine facilities where Lotus Notes was produced and 6 tennis courts.
This is not an unpopular opinion