AUSTIN | Project Updates Thread Part II

[KevinFromTexas]

Sweet. The elevations show it to be 90 feet to the parapet on the roof. Check out the elevations. The west facing elevation shows how the Congress facade will appear, and it is very nice. This is going to be a nice building.

The elevations are numbers 29, 30 and 31.
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=10839370

[JoninATX]

Awesome, I didn't think it would be that high. This is exactly what downtown needs.

[lzppjb]

I love the design. I hope they use materials for the facade that will make it look like the old Congress buildings that we all enjoy.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...-building.html

Jan 29, 2014, 1:43pm CST
Developer breaks ground on Austin office building

Jan Buchholz
Staff Writer-
Austin Business Journal

Not all of the major construction activity in the Austin area is in the downtown core. HPI Real Estate Services & Investments, one of Austin’s most prolific real estate companies, broke ground this week on a new building in the San Clemente office and retail park in West Austin, with a technology company tenant on board.

Located at Westlake Drive on the west side of Capital of Texas Highway, the new building will rise five stories and encompass 250,000 square feet.

Spiceworks Inc., a local technology company, has signed on for 95,000 square feet. The new building is scheduled to be completed in May 2015, and Spiceworks will be moving from the Ladera Bend office complex which is on FM 2222 west of Capital of Texas Highway.

[lzppjb]

Chip Brown reported last night that UT is planning a new 2-story indoor practice facility, replacing the current "Bubble." Money is in place. Just dealing with CVC issues.

[MightyYoda]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

Chip Brown reported last night that UT is planning a new 2-story indoor practice facility, replacing the current "Bubble." Money is in place. Just dealing with CVC issues.

With Steve Patterson, I think we can expect a lot more changes to the Athletic facilities in the future.

[lzppjb]

Originally Posted by MightyYoda

With Steve Patterson, I think we can expect a lot more changes to the Athletic facilities in the future.

Heck yeah. He's bringing in Disney to help with gameday experience (ushers, etc). Hopefully he tackles Godzillatron and how it sucks the energy from the crowd.

He'll be the one brokering the deal for the new basketball arena too. We'll see how he deals with the city on that one.

[Syndic]

I think UT should just break with the city and build its own, smaller arena. The Erwin Center is cavernous and makes UT basketball's poor attendance look even worse. Some of the most prestigious college basketball programs in the country have smaller, more intimate arenas. Take Duke, for example. Their arena (Cameron Indoor Stadium, seen below) looks like just another campus building.



But inside it looks like this:



If the city of Austin wants to build an events center, it should get together all the stakeholders and build it on its own, IMO. UT basketball (and other sports) need something more intimate; something on campus that the university can feel is their own.

[kingkirbythe....]

I believe you are correct in your thinking Syndic.

[the Genral]

[QUOTE=Syndic;6430421]I think UT should just break with the city and build its own, smaller arena. The Erwin Center is cavernous and makes UT basketball's poor attendance look even worse. Some of the most prestigious college basketball programs in the country have smaller, more intimate arenas. Take Duke, for example. Their arena (Cameron Indoor Stadium, seen below) looks like just another campus building.



The Erwin Center is owned and operated by UT with no affiliation with the City of Austin so there's no need to "break" from the city. They, UT, are in the process of looking for a place to build a new arena to make room for the new medical facility planned for that spot. And there's no doubt the new arena will be anything but intimate. It will be big and state of the art. After all, this is UT where everything has to be world class. It also needs to be big enough to attract money making events, ie; concerts, circus, boxing, wwf, tennis ect...
The arena was built to replace the "intimate" Gregory Gym, and it is named after Frank Erwin, a UT Board of Regents member.
Although the Erwin Center is multi purposed, it was built to house the men's and women's basketball teams above all else.
I wasn't aware the city wants to build an events center btw.

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by the Genral

The Erwin Center is owned and operated by UT with no affiliation with the City of Austin so there's no need to "break" from the city. They, UT, are in the process of looking for a place to build a new arena to make room for the new medical facility planned for that spot. And there's no doubt the new arena will be anything but intimate. It will be big and state of the art. After all, this is UT where everything has to be world class. It also needs to be big enough to attract money making events, ie; concerts, circus, boxing, wwf, tennis ect...
The arena was built to replace the "intimate" Gregory Gym, and it is named after Frank Erwin, a UT Board of Regents member.
Although the Erwin Center is multi purposed, it was built to house the men's and women's basketball teams above all else.
I wasn't aware the city wants to build an events center btw.

The FEC benefits the city of Austin by acting as our local events center. Neither you nor I knows anything about what Patterson plans to do. He's not DeLoss Dodds. He's not an orthodox guy. He wants to play football games in Mexico City for chrissake. Most of his career has been spent in the NBA, so he's a basketball guy. Surely, he has enough basketball knowledge to see that UT is not an NBA team and so the FEC is way too big. It's bad marketing to televise games where your arena is half-empty (if not 3/4ths empty). So, building another arena that's too large for our basketball team would be idiotic.

If you read by comment again, you'll see that I said "If the city of Austin wants to build an events center". Obviously, Austin needs a local events center and the Erwin Center will be torn down sometime in the next 10 years. If Texas goes their own, smarter route and builds a smaller arena (it's possible that they won't because they probably want the money that comes with hosting large events) then Austin will have NO CHOICE but to build its own events center. This would be the best outcome for both parties, IMO.

I'm just tired of seeing a mostly-empty arena for UT basketball games. It's embarrassing and bad for our image. This has more to do with the arena being too big than our fan base being too small.

Anyway, that won't matter this Saturday against Kansas because that game is sold out. But that only happens once a season if we're lucky.

[the Genral]

My comment was based on your statement I quoted.
I haven't heard anything about the city wanting an event center, so I'm assuming you are suggesting that UT should downsize their basketball arena so its capacity vs attendance looks better on tv, and if the city wants to attract big city acts, they should build their own events center. Well, I kind of do know what Patterson wants to do, as reported by Kirk Bohls in the AAS 2 days ago. He listed relocating the FEC as one of his priorities and winning championships as another. That certainly would solve the low attendance issues. Now do you plan a new facility's capacity based on sucking or winning? As a one venue arena, or multiple use as is his former Wells Fargo Arena in AS. Granted it is smaller than the FEC, and Arizona St has a larger student body, 60k vs UT 52k, but Tempe's population 167k vs Austin's is a factor. With a city of over 800k, they should be selling out the FEC every game if a) UT was a basketball school, b) had a consistantly ranked team, c) had a couple of marquee players like in the past, ie; TJ Ford, Durant. In reality, all you really need to do is (b).
I do agree with you, seeing empty seats on tv does not look good, but if you recall, the folks who handle the lighting used to keep the lights on low over the fans and a few years ago decided to light up the whole arena during the games. Perhaps they should just turn down the lights again...gig 'em

[royiv]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Tempe's population 167k vs Austin's is a factor.

Not really. Tempe is located almost dead center in a metropolitan area of nearly 4.5 million people.

[lzppjb]

I have stated before on this site that I prefer a smaller, more intimate arena for UT. Most fans want that too. The biggest factor is to quit giving prime seats to people just because they bought football season tickets. They don't always show up to basketball games. They need to be separate.

I would LOVE to be able to expand Gregory and move back in, but that's not going to happen. So, I'll settle for a state-of-the-art 10k seat arena somewhere near campus.

Austin should build their own 20k seat arena somewhere else, like the AAS site.

[East7thStreet]

Building a smaller arena would be huge mistake in my opinion. Just because the team has sucked the last few years and fans are sick of Rick Barnes doesn't mean we should base the size of the arena on today's attendance.

UT should be able to sell out a 16k+ arena with a better team, better coach, and most importantly....an arena that doesn't feel like a concrete morgue. Just putting the seats closer to the court and locating the arena closer to restaurants and bars would produce much higher attendance.

Add the fact that the city appears ready to pony up a large contribution to a new arena as well as the university and we could have a world class arena built for both basketball...and concerts/events.

[ahealy]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...to-austin.html

[MightyYoda]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

I have stated before on this site that I prefer a smaller, more intimate arena for UT. Most fans want that too. The biggest factor is to quit giving prime seats to people just because they bought football season tickets. They don't always show up to basketball games. They need to be separate.

I would LOVE to be able to expand Gregory and move back in, but that's not going to happen. So, I'll settle for a state-of-the-art 10k seat arena somewhere near campus.

Austin should build their own 20k seat arena somewhere else, like the AAS site.

Totally agree with this.

[texastarkus]

I did a little google searches noted the largest basketball arenas (both pro and college) are:
Dallas 19,200
Houston 18,000
San Antonio 18,500
Texas 16,331
Tech 15,000

Also the top 5 largest college in the US are:
1. 33,000 - Carrier Dome - Syracuse
2. 24,535 - Thompson-Boling Arena - Tennessee
3. 23,500 - Rupp Arena - Kentucky
4. 22,700 - Marriott Center - BYU
5. 22,000 - KFC Yum! Center - Louisville


So...I bet UT will build hold at least 20,000 maybe 25,000 just to prove that they're the biggest and best! Hook 'Em
As for a location it'll be someplace east of the Interstate probably north of the baseball stadium maybe make some kind of sports complex.

[KevinFromTexas]

The South Congress Hotel site.


BIG RED DOG ENGINEERING - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[lzppjb]

They work quick.