AUSTIN | W Hotel Austin & Residences | 472 FT | 37 FLOORS | T/O

[shakman]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Those parking lots for sure. And in fact, there's an 18-story hotel planned for the parking lot in the left side of the picture.

Most of what you're looking at is our Warehouse District though, which is a major center for entertainment in downtown. Restaurants, bars, clubs. It's also popular for being the center of the gay scene in downtown. Some of the buildings are historic and old too, as they're old warehouses. They're considering protecting the area from heavy redevelopment to keep the character of the district. There are several projects planned for it though.

One project is planned next to the Plaza Lofts. See the short tan building in the center right of the picture with the blank wall? Just to the left of it, a developer is planning a 17-story residential building that will have street level retail.

There's another project also planned for the block directly in front of that one. This project would cover half the block on the north side (right side) of the block. This one is a planned 17-story hotel that would have street level retail.

There's also two big residential towers planned for two blocks in the upper right (behind the tan building and black and white one). These two towers would be 35 and 40 stories. One is said to be 550 feet tall. The developer is Novare, which also developed Austin's 2nd tallest, 360 Condominiums nearby.

And of course, to the left of 360 Condominiums (the tower with a spire) is a planned huge redevelopment project for the old water treatment plant. Demolition of the plant is almost finished. That project will include up to 5 towers of office, residential, hotel and retail. The tallest tower looks to be about 600 feet, although one developer had planned one up to 725 feet. So it may go higher.

And there's also a redevelopment project planned for the old power plant next to the water treatment plant. That one involves building offices and retail in the old main plant building, and then building a 22-story hotel and residential tower next to it. Basically, most of the development happening in downtown is going on in this area.

There's also a planned 27-story, 350 foot mixed use tower, with office, residential and retail that would go up on the parking lot in front of the Whole Foods HQ. In the photo above the Whole Foods Building is the orange colored one near the top right of the photo. The new 27-story tower would rise infront of it (blocking the view).

The white tower crane in the photo is working on an 8-story federal courthouse.

Capitol view corridors are present in the area, but developers can build around them, and in most cases it results in taller buildings since they need to be slimmer to slip between them.

Kevin -

Thanks for the development tour. I had no idea the water treatment and power plants were that close to Downtown. Amazing stuff from when I last visited Austin... ...1986.

[KevinFromTexas]

^In the photo of photolitherland's that I quoted, you can see the Seaholm Power Plant just to the left of 360 Condominiums. The white smoke stacks, they will probably be left intact along with the main power plant building. The building itself is nearly perfect for being used for retail space in the form of an indoor mall like structure. Cleveland's Arcade comes to mind as to what it could be like.

[KevinFromTexas]

From tonight.

[PartyLine]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

^In the photo of photolitherland's that I quoted, you can see the Seaholm Power Plant just to the left of 360 Condominiums. The white smoke stacks, they will probably be left intact along with the main power plant building. The building itself is nearly perfect for being used for retail space in the form of an indoor mall like structure. Cleveland's Arcade comes to mind as to what it could be like.

Maby kinda like Quarry Market in San Antonio?

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by PartyLine

Maby kinda like Quarry Market in San Antonio?

If we should be so lucky

[LeoZ]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

My gripe with this building is the flat roof. Everything else is at least OK, but I'm just not sure a flat roof will look good in Austin. I see that flat roof as a blank canvas. Anything would be better up there than nothing. It's one thing to have a glass curtain skyscraper with a flat roof, that looks good actually. But this building's roof needs something. Not a spire either, but some kind of decorative top.

Vegetation maybe? You can never really get too green.

[LeoZ]

When I first heard about the W Hotel and ACL in the same sentence, I thought they were trying to move the concert grounds to the middle of downtown! Of course it's just the filming of the TV show, which I think is neat, but for a while there I was horribly confused!

[KevinFromTexas]

1/1

[priller]

From Jan 2nd:

[breathesgelatin]

OK, from the renderings and early shots of this one, I really wasn't loving it, but I have got to say it's winning me over slowly.

[Mr. George]

Greeting all. I'm another future resident of the W. Special thanks to Priller for the Google Earth model of the W.

[KevinFromTexas]

Taken about 30 minutes ago:

[WAustinResident]

if you go to their website, http://www.block21residences.com/ it now has a video animation showing the building, the pool areas, the inside lounges, among other things.

[Thymant]

Very nice!

[Jose Ole]

Greetings SkyscraperPage posters, my name is Jose Lozano and I was forwarded to this forum from another member at City Data and Skyscraper City that suggested I add my project to this forum as well, so here goes:

Since March of 2009, I have been photographing the construction of the W Hotel, the new Austin City Limits Studio, and the residential condos currently under construction on 2nd Street in downtown Austin. Much like several of the other time lapse videos I have worked on in the past, I created this video by taking photographs from several vantage points and edited it all together into a time lapse video documenting the construction over time. I'm trying to get the project out there to the public so check out the video below and feel free to share with anyone and everyone!

• Video Link
When it is finished in December of this year, the W Hotel and residential condos above it will come in at 36 stories high, making it one of Austin's tallest buildings. In 2011, the Austin City Limits Studio will move to it's new location, greatly increasing the seating capacity from 300 to 2,000. Great news for all those people like myself who stood in line at the UT studio location, only to have my hopes of getting in crushed

Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching the video, and if you dig the music, check out Morris Orchids... they are great friends of mine from San Antonio and a band that you definitely must listen to!

[photoLith]

Dude, great video, loved the music.

[shakman]

In some of those frames, one can see the Austonian rising as well.

Great video... Thanks for sharing.

[KevinFromTexas]

1/17

[NYC2ATX]

Dear me, what projects are there going to be for me to keep track of once the W tops out? I refuse to stop being preoccupied with Austin.

[Jose Ole]

Originally Posted by StatenIslander237

Dear me, what projects are there going to be for me to keep track of once the W tops out? I refuse to stop being preoccupied with Austin.

There's always the new court house which is just breaking ground... I've already started time lapsing that project as well!