Quote:
Originally Posted by ahealy
This is SO interesting. I was born/raised in SA and moved to Austin around the age of 18. I always felt San Antonio held a timeless old world mystique to it, while Austin was this very new booming blank canvas of a capital city...
I love Austin, but feel it's kind of swallowed itself in certain ways. The architecture is OK but seems like a rushed finished product with some of our newbies... San Antonio is classic, majestic, artistic and an OG bad girl.
I really want to see SA catch up in one fell swoop with a new main skyscraper.
The End.
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How was Austin "swallowed itself out". Austin is beautiful and needed more, which it has done. It is amazing how much has been achieved in such little time. architecture is certainly worthy of much attention, each new addition is breathtaking. I was just in Austin this past weekend and purposelessly went through downtown to get to lake Travis. I saw much going on, lots of foot traffic, booming businesses and things of interest for all ages, while enjoying the sights of tall highrises in and around downtown (that is what downtown is meant to be).
While on N Mopac Expy, I could not help feel as if I was driving from O'Hare international (the train and clean highway) to downtown Chicago - only, smaller in scale. It was perfect. Having modern highrises doesn't make Austin any less of a unique city, it only adds to their diversity, which San Antonio lacks.
Downtown should be a place of tall buildings and unique architecture and prominence of a healthy and active commerce. I can see, while driving north on I 35, the high-rises of Austin from thirty miles away, similar to Houston, at which its highrises can be seen from 50 miles away. Coming back to San Antonio (south on i35) and what do you get? The sight of a restaurant at around 600ft and a long square next to it, that it. It's kind of embarrassing. Is it any reason why many Fortune 500 companies either leave or don't want to be here? People like looking at tall building and varied architecture. That is what a downtown is for; if you wanted something with no height or a bunch of 10 story buildings, then the midwest plains or outskirts of any major metropolitan, such as 1604 and i10 are definitely for you.
Nevertheless, I feel as if something really interesting will be proposed this year - perhaps something taller than 400ft by dec 2018...that is my prediction.