Robert Barnstone

Robert Barnstone Robert Barnstone, a former city council member, urban visionary, real estate developer and irrepressible spirit who helped create the modern identity of our city, died Sunday in Austin. He had been ill following a stroke he suffered last July. Robert Barnstone was born in Laredo in 1946, into a legendary Texas and Mexican family that included his mother, Marti Franco, the founder and owner of Marti's, the landmark Nuevo Laredo gift shop, art gallery, jewelry and furniture store; his late brother Howard Barnstone, the architect who collaborated with Philip Johnson and Eugene Aubry on the Rothko Chapel in Houston; and another brother, Willis Barnstone, a prominent poet and translator. Robert attended Indiana University and NYU before graduating from the University of Texas. He worked for the Robert Kennedy campaign in 1968 and later received his Masters in Public Administration from the Wharton School of Business. He was married for forty years to Anne Bauer Barnstone, a former managing editor for Texas Monthly, whose initial attraction to him was greatly enhanced by the fact that "he spoke such beautiful Spanish." Robert Barnstone's public life began shortly after he and Anne moved to Austin in the early '70's and bought a hundred-year-old stone house on 11th street. After discovering that plans had been drawn up to widen nearby Enfield Road, Robert threw himself into the ultimately successful cause of defeating the initiative. It was the beginning of a lifelong personal crusade to protect neighborhood quality against heedless traffic initiatives. He later organized a radio campaign to defeat a proposed freeway along Town Lake, and was instrumental in brokering an arrangement that would allow trees to be planted along Congress Avenue with minimal loss of downtown parking places. He served on the City Council from 1988 to 1991. During his term he worked to save the taxpayers money by locating Austin's new airport on the site of the recently decommissioned Bergstrom Air Force Base, rather than at a rival site near Manor. Many people believe that it was Robert Barnstone's adroit last-minute maneuvering from behind the dais in a tumultuous 1990 city council meeting that helped spell defeat for a massive development on the Barton Creek watershed. After a run for mayor in 1991, Robert continued his career as a developer, seeking out projects that would bring people back to the inner core of Austin and help stop the sprawl on the city's fringes. Among his projects were early inner-city condominiums such as the Encinal, the Tuscany and the de Saligny. More recently, he developed The Nokonah, which helped jump-start the trend for downtown living. At the time of his death, he was a key member of the partnership that developed Spring, the Vancouver-style "point tower" now under construction at 3rd and Bowie. Making Austin a better place to live was one of the driving interests of Robert's life,. He was more than a developer. He was an artist with the city as his canvas. There was a love of excellence in him, and harmony, flavored with a life-long nostalgia for the lively street-life of his Nuevo Laredo childhood.. He had an exhausting, often expert enthusiasm for nearly everything,: politics, fly-fishing, archery, classic Broadway musicals, history, Guinea hens, obscure photographers. His sartorial experiments-vintage Boy Scout campaign hats, black velvet sport jackets, fashion-forward clodhoppers, and disposable Japanese jeans-were noted less for their success than their exuberance. For thirty-five years he hosted and participated in a famous poker group whose members included Bud Shrake, Bill Broyles, Bill Wittliff, Gregory Curtis, Dick Benson, Joe Longley, and-on one memorable night,--the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who passed out on the Barnstone floor. Robert Barnstone was also the inventor of the Nuevo Laredo Tiddle, an arcane poker maneuver that was difficult-and, some say, pointless--to master but which he had the satisfaction of seeing spread to both the East and West coasts. But what mattered most to this passionate man was the family he created with Anne, He is survived by, and cannot possibly ever be forgotten by, his sons Anatole and Mateo Barnstone, his daughter Gabriella Barnstone, and his adored grandchildren Henry, Clara, and Millicent; and also by his mother Marti Franco, his brothers Willis Barnstone, Jack Suneson, Ronald Barnstone, and his sister Ricarda Ortiz. And he is survived as well by generations of Austin citizens who will never know his name or the ways in which he made our city a more beautiful and graceful place to live. There will be a private burial, followed by a memorial celebration of Robert's life that will be announced at a later date. Instead of flowers, the family suggests a donation in Robert Barnstone's name to the Austin Community Foundation.