A Resident’s View of Austin’s Mueller Airport Redevelopment
By Todd Boss
It’s a hundred years since Webster admitted the words aircraft, airplane, airstrip, etc., into the English dictionary. Not long after, an early airfield was built on a rare flat section of farmland in the Texas hill country. Gravel crunched under the fat tires of biplanes. The runway was lengthened, then a second was added, and soon there was no one in the growing town of Austin who hadn’t been out there to ride, or travel, or watch people do so.
Photo by Todd Boss.
Air travel changed, and so did the city. It got famously weirder, then famously bigger: Austin saw the highest percent growth of any major metro area in America for 12 straight years. Congestion got so bad at Mueller Airport (named for 1920s-era city commissioner Robert Mueller, whose family pronounced it “Miller”) that Austin broke ground on a proper modern airport on the site of the former Bergstrom Air Force Base in the late 1990s.
And with that, a golden inner-ring development opportunity presented itself in the form of a 711-acre parcel—ten minutes from the University of Texas and 12 from downtown, virtually treeless, and level as the day is long.
Photo courtesy Mueller.
Development Process
But that opportunity came with risks to surrounding neighborhoods, who worried what paved space would mean for stormwater runoff, and what stylish new housing would mean for their notoriously high Texas property taxes.
The Austin American Statesman recounted how the origins of the master plan “started as a grassroots effort in the 1980s. A decadeslong planning process followed, involving city leaders and planners, consultants and the community. In 1996 came the creation of a 16-member task force of community stakeholders. Throughout the process, citizen participation and engagement were a vital part of the process in shaping a new future for Mueller.”
Image courtesy City of Austin and Catellus Austin.
Mueller Development Timeline + Notable Awards
Photo from Mueller Design Book: The Master Plan for Robert Mueller Municipal Airport Redevelopment, Revised September 17. Prepared by McCann Adams Studio. Courtesy City of Austin and Catellus Austin.
1930: Rober Mueller Municipal Airport (RMMA) is dedicated on former farmland.
1961: A new control tower and terminal built for the Jet Age is dedicated by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1984: The Citizens for Airport Relocation (CARE) grassroots group calls for the airport to move and releases a vision plan for redeveloping the site.
1993: Voters approve bonds to build a new airport at the site of the recently decommissioned Bergstrom Air Force Base.
1996: RMMA Redevelopment Process and Goals Task Force publishes a report establishing key planning principles for redevelopment.
1997: City of Austin contracts with ROMA Design Group to develop a reuse and redevelopment master plan.
1999: Robert Mueller Municipal Airport officially closes.
2000: City Council adopts the RMMA Redevelopment and Reuse Plan, creates RMMA Plan Implementation Advisory Commission, and issues RFQ in nationwide search for master developer.
2001: Congress for New Urbanism awards the Mueller redevelopment plan a Charter Award for urban design, placemaking, and community building.
2002: City of Austin selects Catellus Development Group to be master developer and begins negotiations on the Mueller Master Development Agreement.
2003: Seton Healthcare Network, City of Austin, and Catellus agree to locate a new children’s hospital at Mueller.
2004: City Council approves zoning to implement Mueller master plan and approves Master Development Agreement for Mueller.
2005: Mixed-Incoming Housing Symposium hosts national experts to inform the creation of the Mueller Affordable Homes Program; National League of Cities honors Mueller with the James C. Howland Award for Municipal Enrichment.
2007: First commercial building and park opened in Mueller; Mueller Central, the community information center opens as an adaptive reuse of the former Signature Terminal; first stores in regional retail center open; Seton’s Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas opens; first single-family homes are occupied.
2008: Urban Land Institute names Mueller a finalist for the J. Ronald Terwilliger Award for Workforce Housing Models of Excellence; Envision Central Texas presents Mueller a Community Stewardship Award; Mueller Foundation nonprofit is established by Catellus to fund long-term community goals for Mueller and sustain the Mueller Affordable Homes Program; three more parks/greenways open.
2009: International Economic Development Council recognizes Mueller with a Sustainable and Green Development Award; first multi-family development (Mosaic at Mueller) opens; Dell Pediatric Research Institute opens as the first building on the University of Texas Health Research Campus in Mueller.
2010: Control Tower exterior preservation and restoration activities are completed.
2012: First predominantly affordable apartment community opens for seniors; City Council endorses East 51st Street Vision Plan, guiding future improvements for the corridor.
2013: First protected bike lanes, known as “cycle tracks”, are introduced; HEB full-service supermarket opens with Mueller’s Market District; The Thinkery, Austin’s children’s museum, opens as the first anchor of the Aldrich Street District.
2015: Austin Independent School District’s regional Performing Arts Center opens in Mueller; first live-work shop houses open; American Planning Association awards Mueller the HUD Secretary’s Opportunity and Empowerment Award.
2016: Another park and community gardens open; Mueller achieves LEED Gold for Neighborhood Development rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.
2019: Mueller wins National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Gold Award for Mary Elizabeth Branch Park design.
2020: Mueller wins Texas Society of Architects’ Design Award for the John Gaines Park and Swim Center.
2021: BikeTexas names Mueller its Development of the Year for building protected bike lanes.
2021: Mary Elizabeth Branch Park achieves SITES certification by the Sustainable SITES Initiative / Green Business Certification, Inc.
Photo courtesy Mueller.
A Model of Responsible Urban Planning
At completion (and subject to change), Mueller will have:
Residential
- 6,900 total residences
- 1,725 affordable homes
- 16,400 total residents
Commercial + Institutional
- 4.75 million square feet total space
- 18,600 employees
Retail
- 750,000 square feet total space
Parks + Open Space
- 140 acres total
- 11 parks
- 13+ miles of trails
Source: Mueller Tour Guide.
Today, the Mueller neighborhood is hailed as a model of responsible urban planning, with an emphasis on affordability, environmental sustainability, economic development, and community participation.
And, sure, a roughly 32-acre patch is dominated by Dell Children’s Medical Center and 16 more are reserved for an academic health research campus for the University of Texas… And, yes, some big-box retailers loom along the district’s high-visibility Interstate 35 edge… Several unsightly former hangars along a light-industrial corridor have been retrofitted to house film studios… But the rest of the community is compact, and pedestrian-scaled. Tree-lined Dutch-style lanes connect stylistically individuated neighborhoods clustered around trails, pools, and playgrounds. The inner core is anchored by several corporate headquarters, a school, a science museum, and a restaurant district among leafy alleyways.
A public-private partnership between the City of Austin and Catellus Development Corporation, the neighborhood is LEED-certified in dozens of ways, boasting 140 acres of open space with 15,000 trees (selected from a diverse roster of native or adapted plant stocks that include a wide range of fruit trees). Rooftop photovoltaic panels generate 1.5 megawatts of power, according to another anchor, Austin Energy. A 300-acre reservoir snakes the acreage, swizzling the street grid and defining recreation patterns.
Photo by tomtomdotcom_tbirdaerial, courtesy Shutterstock.
Living at Mueller
I lease in a courtyard complex adjacent to a toddler-friendly fountain where a thronged indoor/outdoor farmer’s market pops up on Sundays. There’s almost always a game in progress on the sand volleyball courts. A block-long playground cups a six-cabinet Little Free Library. The street zigzags through a district that boasts a movie theater, restaurants, a dental practice, health spas, and veterinary clinics. When I need groceries, I grab a mesh bag: it’s just a three-minute walk to a full-size grocery store.
Keeping cars off the road is one of Mueller’s central aims, but congestion on the narrow streets of the compound, and bottlenecks at its restrictive exits, are already forcing lane additions and mods, even as multilevel apartment buildings continue to add density.
There are provisions for future light rail service “through the heart of Mueller, in a manner that will put the majority of residents and employees—more than 26,000 people—within a five- to ten-minute walk of transit,” according to the Mueller master plan.
Photo by Todd Boss.
Keep Mueller Weird?
There’s nothing weird about Mueller, and those old enough to remember the weirdness of “old Austin” are a tad flummoxed by its flawless Truman Show vibe. “This is my bubble, and I don’t go outside of it very much because everything I want and need is right here,” one Muellerite told The Statesman in 2023.
But the bubble can be nauseatingly sudsy-clean. Look twice at its housing stock, past the mixed materials and alternating pastel facades, and it washes out as much of the same. Likewise, the office and multifamily rental complexes (five-over-one Texas doughnuts, in the architectural parlance), mostly owned and operated by Chicago-based development giant AMLI Residential, exude that baffled Seaside, Florida design-build charmlessness characteristic of everywhere and nowhere. Austin gets messier, and infinitely more interesting, as soon as you leave Mueller.
Still, porches and stoops provide “eyes on the street” in a mix of yard, garden, row, shop, and multi-unit houses that attempt to skew assumptions about shared and private space. Few homes are afforded lawns of any size, and it’s rare to hear a riding lawnmower. If you cross the community on Simond Avenue, a main east-west boulevard, you might think the development consists of statelier homes. Drive Aldrich, and all you’ll see is apartment complexes. Use Berkman Avenue, and the bus stops, district school, and convenience center known as the Market District will feel very much like any other modern city thoroughfare. But side streets throughout the district are cozy in the close-set, leafy manner of the New Urbanist playbook.
Photo courtesy Mueller.
Affordability
A quarter of available homes (680 of them) are intentionally kept “affordable,” with average sales prices less than half comparable market rates, according to the Mueller Foundation’s 2024 community impact report. The homes are built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A public-private commitment to repress appreciations of those homes to 2 percent of the affordable sales price per year means they won’t be “flipped,” but resold as affordable to others. Property taxes, thanks to a memo of understanding with the county appraisal office, are also controlled.
The list of qualifying homebuyers is rumored to be long, despite that owners are unlikely to profit much from their greatest asset, especially when you factor in maintenance and various HOA fees. One current resident (in an affordable rowhouse) told me her fees climbed from $120/month to almost $400/month from 2017 to 2025. When it comes time to sell, the Foundation has first rights to buy the home back. Even refinancing is subject to Mueller Foundation approval.
This year, when the Statesman reported that Austin-based 3D house printing firm Icon would break ground on a dozen such homes in Mueller, the SOLD signs went up quickly. Two of these are in the affordable program, owing in part to economy of construction. Icon is known for using a proprietary quick curing “Lavacrete,” a polymer concrete with high geothermal ratings. To call it space-age stuff is no exaggeration. With contracts from DARPA and NASA, this is the same company whose Olympus system is being engineered to construct future landing pads, roadways, structures, and pressurized habitats out of moon dust. On the moon.
Image courtesy eIcon Technology.
What’s Next
Catellus Development Corporation, based in Emeryville, California (purchased in 2011 by TPG Capital, an investment firm with headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas), has just laid the foundations of the first street through another environmentally sustainable new neighborhood on 208 nearby acres, called Colony Park. When complete, it will have single-family housing for up to 3,000 residents, 130,000 square feet of mixed-use retail, and “improved access to” 93 additional acres of parks and open spaces, according to Colony Park’s master plan.
(A worthwhile footnote about “public-private partnerships,” for politically minded readers: Texas isn’t known for its love of federal government programs, but Colony Park owes its guiding principles to many of them. According to the plan, “The Colony Park Sustainable Communities Initiative is funded through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Challenge Grant made available through the Partnership for Sustainable Communities… an unprecedented collaboration between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” launched by the Obama administration in 2009.)
Photo courtesy Mueller.
How things do change. A hundred years ago, Robert Mueller voted at Austin’s very first City Council to pass Ordinance 260701-1, establishing the departments of Law, Finance, Police, Fire, Public Health and Welfare, Public Property, and Water Light & Power. “This was the formal beginning of the reorganization of local government under the new manager-commission system,” writes University of Texas historian and urban planning professor Rich Heyman in the blog The End of Austin, a digital humanities project that explores Austin identity. But Mueller also contributed to institutionalizing segregated services that reinforced Jim Crow laws and impacted the community for generations to come. Would he be distraught to stroll his namesake neighborhood now and see what a demographically mixed community enjoys its shared amenities?
Two decommissioned air traffic control towers still loom monolithic in Mueller airspace, the district’s unforeseeable change monitored by a personnel of ghosts. When I pass by, I like to try to visualize this urban experiment a hundred years from now, aging and evolving, tree plantings fully grown and arching over the rooftops, flights departing regularly from a nearby starport for destinations beyond imagining.
3 Key Lessons from Mueller
I asked a spokesperson for Mueller master developer Catellus what challenges in the Mueller project proved to be most significant, and what was learned. These are his (unedited) answers:
- Park Maintenance: Although the development team believed Mueller’s 140 acres of open space would be popular with those who live and work both in and around Mueller, the team doesn’t think anyone could have anticipated how popular Mueller’s parks would become and, consequently, how much additional maintenance would be required. And, with an increase in extreme weather—prolonged droughts and freezing conditions, plus even hailstorms—maintenance has proven more challenging than expected. Even with appropriate funding, having the human resources to coordinate and conduct the work can strain the team at times. As a result, we’ve learned having specific maintenance plans developed before a new park opens has been incredibly helpful for the team to establish checklists and timelines to be more proactive than reactive to regular park maintenance. The Property Owners Association is also now considering a budget line item to cover damage from extreme weather conditions.
- Property Owner Expectations: In a mixed-income community like Mueller, there are many first-time homeowners who may be unfamiliar with how a property owners association might work, who is responsible for what, why they pay assessments, etc. Each property owner receives a set of covenants that spell out much of this when they receive their closing documents, but rarely do people read them when they are signing so many documents at once and dealing with the stress of moving. Regular communication through multiple channels is critically important to reduce frustration among property owners and the number of requests that can quickly overwhelm the property owner association team.
- Development Agreement Flexibility: The Mueller development team learned a valuable lesson from other public-private partnerships around the country by crafting the Mueller Master Development between the City of Austin and Catellus to have some flexibility over Mueller’s 20+ year development. Having the ability to temporarily pause development in market downturns helped avoid building homes, offices, and retail space that had the potential to sit empty for a period of time. Additionally, having the ability to shift uses from residential to commercial or vice versa based on market demand allowed the project to continue forward delivering a mixed-use development in a timely manner.
Top photo courtesy Mueller. Bottom photo courtesy Mueller.
Todd Boss is a poet, Emmy-winning librettist, and film producer working on a series of novels. He hosts the podcast There’s a Poem in That, on which he writes healing poems for total strangers.
Read poetry by Todd Boss appearing in Terrain.org: three poems, a Letter to America poem, and three poems.
Header photo of Mueller Pond by Roschetzky Photography, courtesy Shutterstock. Photo of Todd Boss by René Treece Roberts.
