Photo: Catellus Development Group

In Austin, Texas, the former municipal airport is fast being transformed into the new Mueller community, a mixed-use urban village located just three miles from the center of town. The project has all the characteristics of a classic brownfield—a large-scale, inner-city site in need of environmental remediation. At Mueller, however, the development team is taking remediation one step further by restoring parts of the site not just to its pre-airport state, but to its origins as Texas blackland prairie.

From the brownfield perspective, airport redevelopment is more straightforward than other transportation or industrial uses. Airports call for large amounts of land that, in real terms, receive little use. Airplanes don’t stand still for very long, and much of the land is under the impervious cover of runways and taxiways. The deconstruction of the site, including such elements as asbestos abatement and fuel cleanup, can be more problematic, depending on the composition of the existing runway surfaces and whether existing buildings will be reused and how. Additional challenges can rear an unwanted specter if the site has a development history before its use as an airport.

The city of Austin conducted pre-development site testing when Mueller closed in 1999, identifying only a few localized areas of contamination from spilled fuel or leaking underground tanks. Deconstruction conducted according to best practices found few further risks, as the site was almost completely undeveloped when it first became Austin’s airport in 1931. So its prior uses, and the risks posed by them, were both minimal and well documented.

Aerial view of the former Mueller airport site, soon to be transformed into a mixed-use development replete with restored Texas blackland prairie.

Prior to the construction of the airport, much of the Mueller site was lightly used farm and ranch land and may have contained remnants of the original Texas blackland prairie, which once stretched east and south along the state’s river valleys toward the Gulf Coast. But by the turn of the century, much of the native flora and fauna predating human settlement had been eradicated by clearing and grazing. Today, only a few hundred acres of prairie remain in all of Central Texas, making the blackland prairie one of America’s most endangered ecosystems.

Fortunately, Austin is home to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and some of the world’s leading experts in native flora and ecosystems, who have partnered with project developers, Catellus, to help create sustainable natural spaces and landscaping throughout the Mueller site.

The redevelopment is governed by a master plan developed over several years and in close collaboration with the community. The goal of the project is to make Mueller a showpiece of green urbanism—a place that incorporates sustainable design principles that minimize the project’s environmental impact, while improving and restoring local air and water quality, green spaces and habitat.

Austin is among America’s leading cities both in promoting sustainable development and in providing its citizens with parks and open space. The new Mueller community includes 140 acres of green space within the 711-acre site.

The proposal to recreate and restore the blackland prairie as part of Mueller’s park system was well-supported by the community and city authorities. The first phase includes the creation of educational trails to help park users learn about native plants and ecosystems, and understand why smart landscaping choices can help make their own homes more sustainable. Eventually, those users will include Mueller’s 10,000 residents, 10,000 employees and the more than 40,000 people in surrounding neighborhoods.

Over time, Catellus and the Wildflower Center aim to extend the lessons learned during the prairie project restoration throughout Mueller. By implementing these best practices in landscaping into all aspects of the redevelopment project, Mueller can serve as a model of successful sustainable design.

Matt Whelan is senior vice president at Catellus Development Group in Austin, Texas.