On Sept. 4, 2026, KUTX 98.9 announced its fall Rock the Park season. One sentence says the series "returns to Mueller Lake Park." The next says the shows will be held at "Girard Kinney Park at Mueller." The radio station that has booked concerts in that amphitheater for close to ten years used both names in a single release, nearly ten months after the park was renamed.
That's understandable. The name "Lake Park" says what the place is: a pond, a shaded trail and a big lawn at 4550 Mueller Blvd. The new name says who the place is for, and that's harder to absorb. The person on the sign helped write the goals that every block of Mueller was built around. More than any other park in the neighborhood, this one now tells the story of how Mueller came to exist.
The man who wrote the brief
Mueller announced the change on Nov. 17, 2025, renaming Lake Park for Girard Kinney, an architect and Cherrywood neighborhood leader. His work elsewhere in Austin is familiar even to people who don't know his name. Mueller's announcement lists Symphony Square, Zach Scott Theater's Whisenhunt building, the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge and his leadership at Scenic Austin among his citywide projects.
His connection to Mueller started before there was a Mueller. Kinney was part of Citizens for Airport Relocation, or CARE, which pushed for a new airport to be built somewhere else. The group also recommended what should happen to the more than 700 acres left behind once Robert Mueller Municipal Airport closed. He represented the neighborhood on the City's Airport Advisory Board from 1984 to 1994. In 1996 he chaired the RMMA Process and Goals Task Force, which produced the six primary goals that still guide Mueller's development almost 30 years later. In an Austin Chronicle profile of the redevelopment, he described his aim as making Mueller a model urban place.
Two of Mueller's best-known landmarks also passed through his hands. The redevelopment team hired him to study whether the historic Robert Browning Hangar could be reused, and what it would take to open the former airport control tower to the public. Jim Walker, another longtime Mueller redevelopment advocate and chair of the Cherrywood Neighborhood Association, gave the announcement's tribute:
"Mueller is a much better place because of Girard's commitment, passion and insight – particularly related to sustainability features and preservation of historic structures."
Community Impact covered the renaming in December 2025. Its article says only that the announcement came in late November, and Mueller's release gives the exact date as Nov. 17.
The park he is now linked to opened in April 2007. Mueller's announcement describes it as known for its European-designed playscape, a tree-shaded serpentine trail around the pond, a large open lawn, and an amphitheater that hosts outdoor movies and concerts year-round. The same announcement says the park is a popular spot for quinceañera, wedding and graduation photos. The new name doesn't change what the park does. It records why the park is there at all.
A milestone show under the new name
This fall's Rock the Park season brings the history and the routine together. KUT's release says the Oct. 23 concert is the series' 50th show. The series is now in its 18th season, and it reaches that 50th show at a park that carries Kinney's name.
The series began with one parent's problem. Jacquie Fuller, KUTX 98.9 assistant program director and Rock the Park co-creator, said she knew firsthand how hard it was for parents to get out and enjoy Austin music. KUTX curates the shows with its Sunday-evening kids' program, Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, and Dell Children's Medical Center, part of Ascension Seton, presents them. In 2023, Austin Chronicle readers voted the series "Best Kids and Family Wild Card."
The season opened Sept. 25 with The Avocados and Money Chicha. Two shows remain:
| Date | Opener | Headliner |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Oct. 23 (50th show) | JareBear, a family music project from Jared Leibowich of The Zoltars and The Infinites | EddieAngel, KUTX's May Artist of the Month, an alternative-soul R&B artist |
| Friday, Nov. 6 | A Parent's Project, a community music effort about parenthood from songwriter Landon Thompson of The Black and White Years | Almost Heaven, an indie dance and post-punk duo |
Check the start times before you head over. The KUTX event page lists 6:30 and 7:15 p.m., while KUT's Sept. 4 release lists 6:45 and 7:30 p.m.
A few house rules from KUT and the KUTX event page:
- Seating: Bring blankets or stadium cushions. Chairs aren't permitted. KUTX suggests something thick enough to hold up against sticker burrs.
- Food and drink: Coolers are fine. Glass containers and alcohol are not.
- Pets: Leashed, well-behaved pets are welcome.
- Kids' ears: Hearing protection is strongly recommended. Free kid-sized earplugs from RK Audiology are available at the KUTX tent while supplies last.
- Access: ASL interpretation is provided, and reserved seating is available for guests with limited mobility, including during pregnancy.
- Getting there: CapMetro routes 20, 10 and 350 run through Mueller. Hourly parking is available in the McBee Garage across from Thinkery, with metered city spaces around the park.
KUT's release suggests packing a picnic. Two newer Aldrich Street spots make that easy. ThoroughFare, a bakery, café, deli and grocery from CEO Ryan Goebel and co-founder Nick Vukmaravich, soft-opened March 17 at 1905 Aldrich St., Ste. 110. Hopdoddy Burger Bar opened Aug. 5 a few doors up at 2005 Aldrich St.
The other names, in bronze
Kinney Park is the newest name in a set that is now complete. The renaming came after the opening of Roger Lavon Taylor, Sr. Plaza, which Mueller calls its last open space, near the old control tower. Around the same time, Mueller's other named parks received permanent bronze signs, in English and Spanish, summarizing each namesake's contributions. The announcement doesn't say whether Kinney Park has its own sign yet. The rest of the parks make a good autumn walk, un recorrido con historia, listed here in the order they opened:
- Ella Wooten Park, opened 2013, honors the first woman to serve on the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce board.
- Paggi Square, opened April 2013, is named for Michael Paggi, an entrepreneur, ferry operator and landowner who brought ice manufacturing to Austin in the late 1800s.
- John Gaines Park, opened July 2016, honors Austin's first African American police officer, who was shot in 1913 while summoning help during a disturbance. A memorial to him also stands at 401 E. 6th St.
- Branch Park, opened May 2019, honors Mary Elizabeth Branch, the first female president of what is now Huston-Tillotson University and an advocate for civil rights and education.
- Jessie Andrews Park, opened November 2020, is named for the first female graduate and first female professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who was also a published poet.
- Taniguchi Park, opened April 2024, honors Isamu Taniguchi, a Japanese immigrant who was imprisoned with his family in South Texas during World War II and later created the Japanese Garden in Zilker Park.
- Roger Taylor Plaza, opened April 2025, honors Roger Lavon Taylor, Sr., a community leader who played a key role in preserving the control tower and in the redevelopment itself.
Read in that order, the list moves from people who shaped Austin as a whole toward people who shaped this site in particular. Taylor saved the tower. Kinney, the newest name, helped decide that the site would become a neighborhood at all. Greg Weaver, founder and CEO of Banbury Development, said the redevelopment team wanted the signs to "shine extra sunlight" on these namesakes and the ones honored in Mueller's street names.
Where the fall calendar puts you
Several of this season's neighborhood events take place at the parks on that list, so the signs come up on their own:
- Mid-Autumn Festival, Saturday, Oct. 3, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Mueller Neighborhood Association hosts it at the Branch Park Pavilion, with dragon and lion dancers, vendors, food and drink, and children's activities.
- Mueller Neighborhood Yard Sale, Saturday, Oct. 24, 8 a.m. to noon. The MNA organizes it across the neighborhood. Ella Wooten Park is set aside as a shared selling spot for apartment and condo residents and anyone else without a yard.
- Texas Farmers' Market at Mueller, every Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It runs year-round, rain or shine, at 2006 Philomena St., with more than 120 vendors.
- Rock the Park, Fridays, Oct. 23 and Nov. 6, at the Girard Kinney Park amphitheater, as listed above.
With that calendar, the 50th Rock the Park show falls the night before the yard sale. You could spend that Friday evening on a blanket at Kinney Park and Saturday morning at Ella Wooten Park, and between one evening and the next morning visit two parks named for people who helped build Austin's institutions.
Victor Barrios was born in Austin, and he enjoys hearing what people love about their own corner of the city, whether that's a Friday on the lawn at Kinney Park or the history behind a street sign. If you have questions about Mueller, or just want to compare notes on how the old airport site turned into the neighborhood around that pond, he's glad to talk, en inglés o en español. Victor Barrios | Let's Connect.
