Video shows how much Austin has changed in the last 20 years
From towering skyscrapers to the second-tallest building in the world at Tesla’s Giga Texas, Austin has changed in the last 20 years.
Hardly any American city is as sensitive to change as Austin, and at the same time they are so vulnerable to it. Over the last 20 years, some parts of the city have been completely swallowed up.
Where once a few towers marked the central core of the city, dozens of skyscrapers now compete for dominance. Long-time residents and occasional visitors can be forgiven for feeling momentarily disorientated: “Where am I? This was a place I once knew like my own backyard.” Despite these upheavals, some sights have remained essentially unchanged.
Award-winning photographer Jay Janner of the American Statesman has documented the most dramatic developments, but also the lasting memories of Austin’s physical past, in a series of before-and-after images.
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The profound changes cannot be put into words. For example, in formerly tiny neighborhoods like West Campus or Rainey Street, high-rise mutinies are now to be found. On fallow pastures that once seemed barely disturbed by human labor, Tesla’s “Gigafactory”, the Q2 soccer stadium and the huge Circuit of the Americas race track now stand.
To make this clear, a powerful visual narrative is needed: While Austin has retained some of its basic human culture, its physical environment has changed beyond recognition in some places.
— Michael Barnes
Drag the sliders below to see Austin’s amazing before and after photos:
