AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The supertall is a real proposal. They recently filed a site plan for it. At first we had assumed it was just marketing, but with them filing a site plan it makes it a little more real than just a concept. They also bought the existing apartment buildings and land where they're planning the project. It's actually two towers each on half of their blocks. The two towers are described as 884,000 square feet of office space and 15,000 square feet of retail in one tower, and 500 apartments and 300 condos in the other tower plus 15,000 square feet of retail.

Here's the thread on it, including the renderings we've seen of the original concept.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=241677

Cool thanks! I wouldn't be surprised if they shot for tallest in Texas if they're so close, almost looks 1050 ish from the images. Really exciting.

[N90]

Still more infill needed but Austin is on the right path. If the current pipeline of projects get underway then it'll hyperdrive Austin's skyline into its beastly future form. What Austin needs the most is a 900' footer or a supertall, if it can get that and fill in some more of the gaps in its skyline then it can say "I'm here" to Dallas.

Dallas skyline panorama

https://live.staticflickr.com/7825/4...40d4b23a_h.jpg

Austin skyline panorama

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8993c36f_k.jpg

Projects like 6XG, BBVA, 5C, the Republic, the Travis towers, 90 Rainey, 44 East, Natiivo, and the Railyards towers will change Austin's skyline.

[wwmiv]

Red River/Concordia/41st/35 and Hancock Center should also be upzoned a la Rainey and West Campus. I bet if you surveyed homeowners there a majority would want to sell.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Red River/Concordia/41st/35 and Hancock Center should also be upzoned a la Rainey and West Campus. I bet if you surveyed homeowners there a majority would want to sell.

Whoo Boy! You obviously don't know that neighborhood. They are some of the worst NIMBYs around. They fought tooth and nail against the Concordia / University Park development. In retrospect, they had good reason to be suspicious of the developers, but they also frequently go to battle with St. David's Hospital of all things.

[texastarkus]

Originally Posted by wrendog

Holy cow Austin! Looks amazing.

Maybe you could give just a couple of those new projects to your friends down the road in San Antonio?

I don't know what to do about SA. We're growing in size both population and area but the skyline is still flat. Just a couple 200 footers. Don't get me started complaining about our airport and lack of direction...

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

I don't know what to do about SA. We're growing in size both population and area but the skyline is still flat. Just a couple 200 footers. Don't get me started complaining about our airport and lack of direction...

I feel your pain even though I love to visit San Antonio. Feel free to vent in Austin threads since it's not allowed in the S.A. sub-forum.

[DFW]

No question about the growing Austin skyline but on that Dallas pan it doesn’t show the right section of the skyline such as Reunion Tower and the Victory skyline area.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

I don't know what to do about SA. We're growing in size both population and area but the skyline is still flat. Just a couple 200 footers. Don't get me started complaining about our airport and lack of direction...

Still though, SA's downtown is second to none Texas in terms of historic beauty. Just need to start filling up those big parking lots.

[DanielG425]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

Still though, SA's downtown is second to none Texas in terms of historic beauty. Just need to start filling up those big parking lots.

I'm from Corpus, live in Austin, have all my family in Houston and yet still San Antonio, in my opinion, has the best downtown in Texas. It's the only city where I hope that there's no more skyscraper construction, but rather low-rise, dense infill. Along with that infill there should be architectural codes and guidelines that preserves the Spanish architecture. That'd be great and would make it a major tourist destination in my opinion

[dc_denizen]

Austin really needs an i35 bypass for all the truck traffic

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Austin really needs an i35 bypass for all the truck traffic

Austin has SH-130, a toll road that runs from Seguin, Texas, 80 miles north through East Austin to Georgetown. The problem is, the trucks choose not to use it. Just short of banning trucks from I-35, there's no way to encourage them to use it. For one thing, it's a toll road and there's nothing motivating them to choose to pay to use it, and it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, though, in true Texas style, it's being developed. I agree, though, the trucks are bad. We drove I-35 last night from north of downtown to our house in South Austin, and with some construction going on, it was down to a crawl. I counted 97 18 wheelers on both sides of I-35 from just south of downtown to our exit in South Austin. That was in the span of maybe 20 minutes.

[Dariusb]

At it's worst how bad has traffic on I-35 gotten during rush hour through Austin. I'm in the Temple/Belton area. I-35 can be a little congested but nothing like down there.

[dc_denizen]

They should ban noisy trucks — the property values would increase (further) in that whole red river/ East Austin area north of 6th.

No need for a major north south export import thoroughfare should go through central Austin (anymore)

Anyhow was there recently, Austin is looking great u guys should be proud

[KevinFromTexas]

Engine brakes are already banned. I agree about the trucks. I-35 is a blessing and a curse. The trucks aren't fun, and Austin tends to get blamed for the traffic on I-35, even though it's the state that maintains it (TxDot). Not to mention a lot of the traffic on I-35 is just passing through.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Austin has SH-130, a toll road that runs from Seguin, Texas, 80 miles north through East Austin to Georgetown. The problem is, the trucks choose not to use it. Just short of banning trucks from I-35, there's no way to encourage them to use it. For one thing, it's a toll road and there's nothing motivating them to choose to pay to use it, and it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, though, in true Texas style, it's being developed. I agree, though, the trucks are bad. We drove I-35 last night from north of downtown to our house in South Austin, and with some construction going on, it was down to a crawl. I counted 97 18 wheelers on both sides of I-35 from just south of downtown to our exit in South Austin. That was in the span of maybe 20 minutes.

I drove to Dripping Springs and back today on 290, and from Oak Hill to Dripping, it was wall to wall cement trucks, 18-wheelers, and wide loads blocking traffic. It was a nightmare. There's construction along much of the route from Oak Hill to Dripping, so the truck traffic makes sense. You can't get away from it in this metro.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, Dripping Springs is being developed into cookie cutter neighborhoods. Traffic is gonna be fun out there. It's telling when every evening most of the traffic on I-35 is headed south (out of Austin) back to the suburbs.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Austin has SH-130, a toll road that runs from Seguin, Texas, 80 miles north through East Austin to Georgetown. The problem is, the trucks choose not to use it. Just short of banning trucks from I-35, there's no way to encourage them to use it. For one thing, it's a toll road and there's nothing motivating them to choose to pay to use it, and it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, though, in true Texas style, it's being developed. I agree, though, the trucks are bad. We drove I-35 last night from north of downtown to our house in South Austin, and with some construction going on, it was down to a crawl. I counted 97 18 wheelers on both sides of I-35 from just south of downtown to our exit in South Austin. That was in the span of maybe 20 minutes.

I lived in San Antonio and traveled to Arkansas about every month. I used 130 one time, and that was just for the novelty of driving 89 with cops passing me. Its route is horrible for avoiding Austin traffic heading to SA. It veers south on its southern portion instead of continuing west towards SA.

According to ole Google, if I leave at 8am today, a trip from DT SA to DT Austin would take:

1 hour 20 mins-1 hour 50 mins I-35
1 hour 30 min- 2 hours 10 min 130

If I expand the trip from DT SA to downtown Temple, the roads are almost identical in time.

Why would anyone on Earth looking at those economics(time and money) and pick the toll route? Its intentions are not the current realities. It now has just become a route for sprawl on the eastside , which hey, isn't a bad deal seeing that its vastly underdeveloped compared to the other sides of Austin.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

They should ban noisy trucks — the property values would increase (further) in that whole red river/ East Austin area north of 6th.

No need for a major north south export import thoroughfare should go through central Austin (anymore)

Anyhow was there recently, Austin is looking great u guys should be proud

Ban trucks on an extremely important international highway route? Where should this traffic go?

[dc_denizen]

As I said, they should build a truck bypass and force trucks to use it

[dc_denizen]

Or do you think the city be more accommodating to trucks? Maybe they should tear down those new midrises in East Austin and build a couple of truck stops and truck weigh stations in downtown Austin since trucks are so all important

“A truck stop instead of st peters
Yeah yeah yeah yeah ...”