So yesterday, council preliminarily approved construction of CLB Partners’ 400-foot condo tower on Seventh and Rio Grande, despite a valiant attempt to stop them. Over at In Fact Daily, Kimberly Reeves has a succinct description of one group’s attempt to rein in the construction: “Milkshake Media draped its building in black crepe. It deluged council offices with hundreds of e-mails – many from the city’s creative community – and took down the city’s server. And Milkshake managed to serve up plenty of outrage over a point tower that some considered a threat to a historic neighborhood.”

But it seems like she forgot one format the tower’s detractors tried: Legos. Over at green/urban/whatever design site WorldChanging, there’s a scale Lego model of how the condos would tower over the existing buildings. Austin’s “creative class” sure lives up its name with these types of protests.

Hopefully, the real thing’s a little sturdier.

This article appears in February 16 • 2007.

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