SAN ANTONIO│ Durango Apartments │ 178 FEET | 15 FLOORS │ Proposed
 

Woot! Retail <3

Does that mean it will be built in phases?

Probably means, given it's location, that they want to make sure the ground level fits with what the city wants to do in that area.

I doubt it will be built in stages, but obviously the approval process is going that way.

Awesome!

Interesting design so far. I know it's just a massing but it resembles the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District in NYC

As much as I am growing to loathe podium parking garages, this one looks pretty cool with those V-shaped columns. Reminds me of the Herzog+de Meuron one in Miami. Even better if the manage to achieve the vines growing down the sides, but I have a feeling that probably won't happen. If we continue to see parking podiums as the preferred parking solution over buried parking, I hope we can see more creative and interesting designs like this.

I also hope the massing stays the same.

I enjoy the it bends in and then out, that it's not just a box.

Exactly! Love that too!:cheers:
By the way there is an article about this project at mysa.com this morning.
Developers are from Wimberley apparently.

Anyone want to post the article?

Article says the whole project is going up for discussion and approval by the Historic Society.:tup:

It's perfect. Let's build ten more.

According to the HDRC document, this rendering shows the plan for the upper stories minus details like windows. The HDRC wants it to be pointier.

Side note, how is FloodGate coming along?

According to the developer the HDRC wants this building to be taller.


https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...-12-story.html

The floodgate hasn't been brought to HDRC with the new designs yet, but remember there is a thread for that one for questions related to it. :)

I hope he makes it taller, but I'm happy with what it is. It's going to be tall for that corner anyway. Here's hoping!

An article from the Rivard Report on this:

https://therivardreport.com/hdrc-cal...artment-tower/

The Historic and Design Review Commission last week readily approved the first three floors of a luxury apartment tower near Southtown, but it didn’t like the remaining nine due to perceived interference with views of downtown San Antonio’s skyline. Commissioners suggested that the tower be designed taller and more slender.

Generally, towers appear taller than they are wide, but that’s not the direction developers and architects took for the 75-unit Durango Apartments project at 421 S. Presa St. They wanted to keep it short, Laney Development Manager Tim Proctor told commissioners last Wednesday, so as to respect the pattern of neighboring buildings’ heights.

If it looks anything like the massing images, then the city is correct on this. Can't really say without seeing actual design proposals.

They could make it taller, narrow it out, and move it to the Presa side of the street and keep the same amount of the apts.

I just hope, when the time comes, that they do not have issue with the JMJ Tower.

The HRDC gets a bit of grief on this forum, but you have to give them some respect this time.

Very true, they've been doing some good things lately.

I think they've had some turnover, so perhaps more level headed people are getting it over there.

That thought crossed my mind as well, but, as I've stated before, as the DT core grows, some views will be sacrificed.

Someone said a couple of weeks ago that we could take a page from Austin, and try to protect view corridors. Not sure how that would work with JMJ though.

The closest we have is the area behind the Alamo. Tower Life is worth protecting s few views though IMO. Property owners might not agree.

The Tower Life building is my favorite as well, but someone pointed out how NYC protects views of their iconic buildings, (not sure that's true, but...), while missing the fact that those buildings are twice to three times as tall as our older, iconic buildings.

Saving views of the Tower Life is important, but I don't know that it's feasible.

At least we'll always have a good view of it from a river barge.

I found this about New York. (Scroll down to Visual Corridors.) The requirement is a certain number of visual corridors from inland streets to the water. Nothing I can find about preserving views of buildings... that would be restrictive in a place where real estate premiums are some of the highest in the world.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/z...nt-zoning.page

Austin's CVCs are mostly for areas not in downtown proper, though a few are. The majority cover land not south of the capitol, where downtown is located. Thus the most expensive parcels are not affected. So it would be tough to make the case for San Antonio using Austin as the example... mostly.

Austin's Capitol view corridors illustrated.

https://imgur.com/gallery/70i1s#NGRASBA

My point, exactly. Preserving highway views of the older, iconic buildings, will be a tough row to hoe.

There is no view of the Capitol, save from South Congress, anymore. The views are being taken away. Even the areas adjacent to the Capitol are being developed. One only need drive or walk on the grounds to see this.

It is somewhat sad, as views from I35 going through Austin are now obstructed, or soon will be.

The view from South Congress is pretty well preserved, but you do have to deal with the Austonian.

(That said, SoCo is still the coolest part of Texas.)

South Congress isn't even the coolest part of Austin. That would be the corner of Westminster and Manor, where Taquerita Mi Trailita is located.

I'm all for making it taller, though, that would actually be what would make it block some views more if that's what they're worried about. 134 feet isn't very tall, and it doesn't appear too bulky either.

Anyway, the most important view, the one I enjoy seeing in San Antonio from time to time, is the one looking down the San Antonio River from the Cesar Chavez Boulevard bridge toward the Tower Life Building and others. That is a really unique view, iconic even. I've got postcards of it. Of course, that view is destined to go away also as the lots around Navarro and Nueva Streets get developed.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.4179...7i13312!8i6656

This is only slightly related to the Durango development, but I noticed that there's a for sale sign up at 700 S. Saint Mary's, the property on the southern side of Cesar Chavez, so right across the street from the parking lot where they're building Durango:

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/700-S...io-TX/9175446/

Looks like it's been operating as an aquatic pain relief/therapy center, and is now up for sale. Maybe just a pipe dream on my part, but someone could snap that up and turn that intersection of St Mary's and Cesar Chavez into a really great hub. You'd have the Agave apartments on the NW corner, Durango on the NE corner, and then a new development (high rise?!) on the SE corner. King William Park just a couple hundred feet away, the new Hemisfair a few minutes walk as well.

Here are some snaps from Google, 1) a bird's eye looking at the two properties, with the Durango parking lot on the left and the Pain Center on the right, and 2), the same view when you're on Cesar Chavez looking east toward the Tower of the Americas, with the Durango lot on the left side of the street and the Pain Center on the right:


https://i.imgur.com/L5AJeqi.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/LojI133.jpg

I saw this the other day and I was thinking the same thing. This intersection could be really cool in 5 years. Hopefully someone buys that Southeast corner and develops it with retail.

From the preliminary agenda...

Looks like the floor count went up to 13.

https://i.imgur.com/qBfi3CG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5MK43hO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/D8d22iE.jpg

13-stories confirmed in the design and I like it, both the height increase and design.

Is this the city's first green roof? I can't remember seeing one anywhere else here before.

It's like Miami in the 50s. I'll take it.

Meh. I liked the original more.

There was no original. What are you talking about?

Haaaaa. My fault. I was remembering back to the first renderings, where they hadn’t fleshed out the facade and had only included the ambiguous massing. In my brain, though, that flatness/blankness somehow translated to it mostly being a glass exterior. So I guess this exterior is what they had all along.

I’d be surprised if it’s the first green roof ANYWHERE in San Antonio, surely some smaller buildings must have them.

Slightly related, I drove by the new Security Service building they’re putting up over near 10 and 1604, I could’ve sworn that building not only has a green roof, but that they’ve actually planted trees on top of at least parts of the roof. Not even little ones, but live oaks and cedar elms or something.

its way too short, but oh well. Nothing can really be done about that.

Let it go with the height of buildings...:slob:

https://therivardreport.com/wp-conte.../Durango-5.jpg

tall enough for this part of town!

https://therivardreport.com/bexar-co...y-development/

Looks like this project is moving along nicely.

Now this is what I like to read about!!!!:cheers:

I think this is one of the nicer projects in SA. Hopefully it goes forward with no problems. Looking forward to a full-fledged rendering.

Based on the article, the header needs to be updated to 13 floors.

Saw some bulldozers on site tearing up the parking lot. Would that be related to this project? :cool:

No, those bulldozers are related to a project in Cleveland. :P

Here's the site plan. It doesn't include the elevations, but it does show the stacking plan. The 134 foot height is to the main roof - which is 134 feet 11 inches exactly. The mechanical roof is probably another 5 feet based on what I could measure.

https://sanantonio.legistar.com/Legi...|Text|&Search=

This attached file includes a drawing show the height as 151 feet 11 inches and is calling it a 13-story building - there are 13 levels in the image.

https://sanantonio.legistar.com/Legi...|Text|&Search=