Lady Bird Lake Austin skyline
— the skyline that watches the bats come out.
Not only on a wall.
Lady Bird Lake Austin skyline, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Lady Bird Lake holds a slow section of the Colorado River through downtown Austin, dammed at the Longhorn in 1960 and renamed for Lady Bird Johnson in 2007. The Frost Tower, the Austonian, and the Independent lean over the south bank. From the Congress Avenue Bridge at dusk in summer, a million and a half Mexican free-tailed bats spiral out across the water.
The place, in three passes.
Lady Bird Lake is a 416-acre reservoir on the Colorado River through downtown Austin, formed when the Longhorn Dam was completed in 1960. The lake stretches roughly six miles from Tom Miller Dam in the west to Longhorn Dam in the east. It was called Town Lake until 2007, when the Austin City Council renamed it for former first lady Lady Bird Johnson, who had championed the riverside trail and beautification work along the shore through the 1970s. The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail rings the shore.
The shore is public parkland on both sides. Kayaks and stand-up paddleboards launch from Festival Beach, Auditorium Shores, and the Texas Rowing Center; gas-powered boats are prohibited on the lake. The Congress Avenue Bridge bat colony, one of the largest urban bat colonies in North America, emerges most evenings from late March through early November. Best viewing is from the bridge itself or the lawn at Statesman Park on the south bank, about twenty minutes before sunset.
The skyline reads differently at first light. The Frost Bank Tower's crown, finished in 2003 with a faceted glass top, catches the eastern sun before the streets below. The Independent, finished in 2019, steps in stacked offsets and throws a long shadow across South Lamar at sunrise. Rowers cross the water in shells before traffic builds. The trail belongs to runners and dogs for an hour before the city wakes up properly across the bridges.
