Editor's note: The top stories of 2015 represent the ups and downs of a year in Austin. Here's a look back at the 10 most-read CultureMap stories of the year, from the controversial to the uplifting.
2. Sneak peek at the HGTV Smart Home in Zilker Park. Each year, HGTV builds and furnishes a Smart Home to be given away to a lucky sweepstakes winner. Last year, HGTV gave away a charming, high-tech home in Nashville. This year, it was a 2,300-square-foot house in the Zilker neighborhood.
3. New report ranks University of Texas the No. 1 school in the country. Get your horns up: For its 2016 list of Top Public Universities, Niche ranked UT Austin the best in the U.S.
4. Alamo Drafthouse launches epic sleepaway camp — for adults only. It's the stuff dreams are made of: Alamo Drafthouse's Rolling Roadshow and Do512 teamed up for Camp Halloweekend, a weekend of film screenings, live music, and camp activities for your inner kid.
5. Affordable Austin suburb named America's No. 1 place to live. Finding the best place to live is often a compromise between affordability and fun — but in Round Rock, you can have it all.
8. Where to eat in Austin: The six best downtown lunch spots. While there are dozens of downtown options, our picks for the workday classics are nice enough to appeal to the food-focused, formal enough to make out-of-towners feel comfortable, and cost-competitive enough to not get your per diem revoked.
10. World-famous Voodoo Doughnut to open Austin shop. In March, news broke that beloved Portland-based doughnut shop would open on Sixth Street. Now Austinites can get their fill of pastries like the Iconic Voodoo Doll and the Maple Blazer Blunt.
