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From DestinationSpaVacations In The News Spa's long-running makeover gets attention How often does this happen: A former nudist camp and lodging house for rodeo cowboys is named the top spa in America? The Lake Austin Spa Resort has pulled that off, landing the top rating in Condé Nast Traveler's annual ranking of the best destination spas in the country. The spa has been in the top five before and moved up to No. 2 last year. These days, the spa is a serene waterfront retreat, with just 40 guest rooms. It had much humbler beginnings as a fishing camp in the 1940s and was briefly a nudist camp in the 1970s. During that decade, it also hosted rodeo cowboys and clowns who were training at nearby Steiner Ranch, which was then a working cattle ranch. Mike McAdams bought it in 1997 and has invested several million dollars in renovations and upgrades. Austin will host New Urbanism conference About 1,500 people and big names in urban planning will gather in Austin next week for the annual conference of the Congress for the New Urbanism, which promotes policies to make cities and towns more livable, walkable and neighborhood-oriented. On its Web site, the group says that Austin, with its new rail systems and developments sprouting around transit hubs, "is the place to see how New Urbanism is making a difference on the front lines of American growth." Speakers will include Peter Calthorpe, a renowned regional and community planner; Henry Cisneros, a former San Antonio mayor who is now an affordable housing developer; and Robert Caro, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and urban historian. Cid Galindo, an Austin urban planner, is writing an article that will be published in a book during the conference. In it, he writes that "Austin's population could reach 2.5 million over the next generation. And if the average population density remains at its current levels, 450,000 new acres of virgin land will have to be developed. That is a clear wake-up call for Austinites — and not a moment too soon." Source: Statesman.com © Copyright 2008 |
