SAN ANTONIO | Urban Core Development Thread

[sakyle04]

i stopped in to check on san antonio and have been so pleased with all of the updates. you guys have been doing an amazing job. and to find threads for the broadway and the new courtyard in the highrise construction section was very cool. keep it up!!!

still in south africa...

[Complex01]

Good to hear the project is still moving forward. It has been a while since anything was heard...

[OfCourse]

The Piazza San Lorenzo looks like it's going to be great. I hope they do something w/ that blank wall on the back side, though.

[JACKinBeantown]

Austin may be getting taller residential towers, but I think it's starting to show that San Antonio's insistence on architectural "style" is paying off in the residential center of downtown. Not so much for the Great Wall of San Antonio (Hyatt), but in the old Riverwalk area with the residences, restaurants and shorter hotels.

[NBTX11]

I was DT today and took a TON of pictures. This is just to whet your appetite. Will post the rest tonight or tomorrow, whenever I get a chance to download all of them.

[NBTX11]

OK, couple more...more later...

[ydoc14]

Way to go NBTX! Looks like the mechanical penthouse is going higher, they've got some more beams on the top of it

[jaga185]

For sure this will be taller than the Marriott roof, hands down, no if ands or buts!!!

[ydoc14]

Hey NBTX, what's the Hyatt like in the skyline coming down 35? Say around Splashtown or Brooks?

[NBTX11]

Originally Posted by ydoc14

Hey NBTX, what's the Hyatt like in the skyline coming down 35? Say around Splashtown or Brooks?

It makes a dramatic improvement coming down I-35 when you get on I-37, and even in the Splashtown area. It is a space eater, so it fills in a large gap in skyline, imo. Looks great on I-37 going south towards Alamodome area, really fills in that side of DT.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by jaga185

For sure this will be taller than the Marriott roof, hands down, no if ands or buts!!!

If it is, then that might mean that the Marriott's roof isn't even 400 feet high, or if it is, just barely over that height.

[ydoc14]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

If it is, then that might mean that the Marriott's roof isn't even 400 feet high, or if it is, just barely over that height.

Not to keep playing the same old tune, but I did calculate the Marriott's roof to be 402'.

[ydoc14]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

It makes a dramatic improvement coming down I-35 when you get on I-37, and even in the Splashtown area. It is a space eater, so it fills in a large gap in skyline, imo. Looks great on I-37 going south towards Alamodome area, really fills in that side of DT.

Sweet!

[NBTX11]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

If it is, then that might mean that the Marriott's roof isn't even 400 feet high, or if it is, just barely over that height.

BOTH the Marriott and GH look taller than 400' to me.

[ydoc14]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

BOTH the Marriott and GH look taller than 400' to me.

Everything's bigger in Texas hahaha.
But I know what you mean. All the skyscrapers downtown look taller than what they're listed as.

[NBTX11]

Couple more...I am going to create a SA thread as well...

[Complex01]

Nice pics...

[Boquillas]

Those are great pics, NBTX11!

I know these are old, but they offer an interesting vantage point on downtown. I took these shots of the Hyatt construction on August 10 of this year, from the skybridge at the San Antonio Museum of Art. If someone could take some more pics from that spot now that it's been topped out, I'm sure it would lend some insight into the relative heights of the two big hotels.







a quickr pickr post

[verbl]

I love these pics! i can not wait for the glass. One more thing that pic of the boa building and the weston was geat but that darn crown plaza needs torn down and replaced!

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks Boquillas! Great angle.

Originally Posted by NBTX11

BOTH the Marriott and GH look taller than 400' to me.

The heights that Sejie posted for the Grand Hyatt is 424 feet to the mechanical penthouse, and 408 feet to the top of the cabana roof. Those came from the blueprints for the building, so I'm sure they're correct. The heights we've always seen listed for the Marriott Rivercenter is 441 feet to the roof, and 546 feet to the spires. In some photos the Hyatt's roof, at least the mechanical penthouse's roof, looks higher than the Marriott's roof. And if it's not taller, than it's really close to the same. If that's the case, then it may mean the Marriott's roof is shorter than that 441 foot height we've all been using. That height may have been including down to the Riverwalk level.

And about the Crowne Plaza. It has potential. What I would love to see happen is strip that god awful limestone facade and replace it with glass and have it carry on up to the penthouse and to that pyramidal top. Make a truly modern looking hotel. The building is quite old, it was actually built in 1957 as an office building for a bank. Around 2000 or so Adam's Mark Hotels bought it, and turned it into a hotel. Crowne Plaza purchased it from them a few years later. It is possible to strip the stone facade and replace it with glass making a nice neighbor for Weston Centre. They did this in Austin for the Dobie Center. That building has beautiful cobalt blue glass, but was originally clad with a limestone facade. It immediately went from being a dated monster, to being an elegant building.

Dobie Center with its limestone facade before 1990 standing to the left (southwest) of the UT Tower in Austin. The building was built in 1972.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Uttower1.jpg

Dobie Center now. The stone facade was replaced around 1990. This is Austin's tallest dormitory tower.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=...-austin-tx-usa

Another view, (from the UT Tower), showing the redo. Photo y stmontgomery.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/4...1d9b778c_o.jpg