Finished. Will it have exterior lighting? Anyone know?

Remember, this is in a floodplain. I would argue that Shoal Creek Walk's format is pretty identical in how it is set back and that includes the office lobby and the service retail. The Monarch doesn't even have street interaction because they built the lobby perpendicular to 5th, so the passerby barely even sees it. Again, it's a floodplain thing. I personally think the entrance is very well done and elegant, and for their asking prices it's a necessary element. There's no gate though. It would be one thing to have a guard out front or only toggle access to even walk up the steps. But I don't know anyone in the building and I walked right up the steps and into the lobby and just told the front desk I wanted to look around. I hung out in all the ground floor common areas for around 5 minutes. They had no issue with it.

Again, you're arguing against points I did not make. Where did I mention retail?

There are plenty of imaginative ways to create an engaging urban experience at street level through material use, greenery, artwork, and thoughtful fenestration to name a few. I don't care what use the building has, it's in the urban core of the city and should be responsive to that environment.

I think the entrance is fine.

With such a small footprint, parking above and below, and so much back of house MEP that has to go on level 1, space for a lobby was limited let alone some commercial space. I have no issue with the lobby

In that case, take your complaints to the Independent thread, which has the same level of street interaction and "thoughtful fenestration," (read: 0) but on a base that's about quadruple the size.

Believe there will be ground floor restaurant and retail at Independent. Not so much direct street interaction perhaps, as lobby abuts West Ave. However, the trail runs on the other three sides so I can imagine good pedestrian possibilities.

I asked on their Facebook page a few days ago. I still haven't heard back yet.

I agree with you, and I have commented about the Independent's base previously in that thread. We really need to have higher standards for what's a good building in Austin than "awesome! It's tall!"

amen

Another way to interpret that is.

Yea mofos we are bankin... Nuff said!!!


:cool::notacrook::yes:

oooorrrrrr, we wish we added 10 more floors. No wait...that was me.

And now we get to find out how many units were bought to be flipped and what prices the market will bear.

Looks may be deceiving, but a lot of units appear to be occupied already based on the number of lighted windows visible at night. Seem like this very expensive building is filling up quite a bit faster than earlier high end projects, but I guess the economy today is much stronger than it was a while back.

Yes, it does look fairly well occupied, but it'd be shocking if no-one bought units back in 15..16 timeframe with explicit intent to flip them. Zillow lists several units for sale at $800+/sqft price levels.

That's awesome news!

weird flashing on 5th & west?
 

Any idea what this is, flashing, on the Fifth & West Residences building?

https://i.imgur.com/3dgbKBh.png

You can see it in this web cam:

https://api.wetmet.net/widgets/strea...9557fdcc54810d

It's been there for several weeks. Any ideas?

I've always thought it was the Clarksville communications tower, but now that I think about it I'm fairly sure that's wrong. Maybe a crane?

https://austin.towers.net/you-are-he...lyn@towers.net

I looked at my pictures and video from a month ago and it wasn't there. That glass reflects a lot but also a lot of people have colored lights on their balcony or room.