AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by NYC2ATX

I agree. One of the things I love about Austin is that in spite of how rapidly the city is growing, so much of the new development remains pleasantly human-scaled... And y'all still have a spectacular developing skyline to brag about.

I think I've said it before on this site, but tall buildings do not a city make. This is one of the reasons why China and Dubai do not impress me as they do some.

Amen to this.

Downtown needs mid-rise infill with the occasional sporadic taller signature tower.

The domain needs vertical mixed use infill, and then maybe we can talk about doing 10-15 story towers with perhaps a 20 story or two tower after that.

The major vmu corridors into downtown should stick with that: vmu. Perhaps up to 10 stories as you get closer to downtown, but not more than that.

[JoninATX]

[QUOTE=OU812;6569924]

Originally Posted by Kotliz

I always wonder about this regarding ALL of Austin. We pretty much have almost no high rises outside of downtown (I'm referring to buildings of at least 10+ stories). Of course Austin isn't really a "big" city yet, so I guess at some point it'll happen later. But we are fairly similar in size to S.A. and they have numerous high rises throughout the city. Namely along the northern section of Loop 410.

In think with Austin there are a lot of zoning issues and neighborhood groups that get all in a tizzy when anything above 4-5 stories is proposed. A 12 story condo was supposed to be built near my neighborhood several years back and there was this huge outcry from local groups.

There's a few 8-10 story buildings spreadout across the metro area. IBM, The Aboretum, 2 google towers by Mopac. Plus there is a 10 story hotel, and 7 story office building currently being constructed in west Austin.

[GoldenBoot]

[QUOTE=OU812;6569924]

Originally Posted by Kotliz

...But we are fairly similar in size to S.A. and they have numerous high rises throughout the city. Namely along the northern section of Loop 410.

In think with Austin there are a lot of zoning issues and neighborhood groups that get all in a tizzy when anything above 4-5 stories is proposed...

As you eluded to, land codes and zoning have had something to do with this fact. Furthermore, Austin has grown much faster than San Antonio since its incorporation. And until recently, city leaders have fought growth.

It is hard to be in a continual state of land code reform as your metro doubles in size every 20-25 years. It takes a forward-thinking governmental establishment (one in which acknowledges and embraces the fact that Austin is a fast-growing city); as rewriting city codes can take the better part of a decade to create and implement. By that time, said city has grown by 50%.

[ndirishdad]

Waller Park Place Tower B : How tall will it be? 55 to 60 floors? Austonian at 56 and 683 FT. I would say at mid 600ft. Nice additional to Austin skyline if it s built!

[ndirishdad]

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/in...osed-projects/
Now it is called Waller Creek Center.
Scroll down to the end.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by ndirishdad

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/in...osed-projects/
Now it is called Waller Creek Center.
Scroll down to the end.

Waller Park Place seems to be the most often used working title:

http://www.ibigroup.com/projects/waller-park-place

[Jdawgboy]

Its interesting how much my point of view has changed over the last 15 years. Back then I really wanted Austin to have clusters of highrises throughout the city most because I was always impressed every time I was in Houston. Over the years that point of view has faded away and I agree with everyone that it's better to build up the Downtown core until its at capacity before building tall buildings in other areas of the city. Having said that I feel that South Shore Central is the right area to build highrises (which is occurring of course) outside the traditional boundaries of DT but South Shore Central will basically become the south extension of DT.

Also as others have said, VMU midrises from 4 to 8 floors are a good start to building up areas of the city along transit corridors like Lamar and Riverside and midrises from 9 to 12 floors are fine for the Domain at this time. Eventually we will have height density but it is much better to fill up empty and underutilized land first.

[Syndic]

Lots of renderings in this article. Here's my favorite:


Image used courtesy of Gensler

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...eres-four.html

The future of Austin's Plaza Saltillo: Here are four developers' visions

Four developers offered competing visions this week for the future of one of East Austin's most desirable development locations, Cap Metro's Plaza Saltillo station, at the transit authority's board meeting.

The about 11-acre site sits mostly vacant today, in contrast with the increasingly lively East Austin entertainment and residential area. In renderings presented to the Capital Metro board at the April 15 meeting, the now-underused site has been brought to life by projects that appear to embody all of the development buzzwords the city and its builders have grown to use in past years.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.austin360.com/weblogs/atx...cuit-americas/

Posted: 1:21 p.m. Friday, May 16, 2014
X Games buildout starts at Austin's Circuit of the Americas

By Dave Doolittle

Circuit of the Americas officials sent us the photo above today.

It doesn’t show much — a few trucks and some front loaders — but for X Games fans it's big: the start of the buildout to next month’s games, the first to be held in Austin.

Over the coming weeks, crews will be turning the 1,400-acre site and its 3.4-mile race track into basically a festival, complete with giant skateboard ramps, dirt tracks for BMX and motocross bikes, live music stages and more.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

http://www.austin360.com/weblogs/atx...cuit-americas/

Here's my favorite Austin X Games promo so far. I'm just now getting into the X Games much like I just started getting into Formula 1 racing when the Austin race was announced:

http://xgames.espn.go.com/video/1089...on-ross-austin

[austin242]

Interesting promo. I actually walked straight past him while walking my dog when they were fimilng in front of the Stevie Ray Vaughn Statue. I guess it did turn out my guess was right of it having something to do with X games. X games are here.

[N90]

Fifth and West:

It seems strange to call a major development in Austin uncontroversial, but it looks like a proposed 39-story tower at Fifth and West streets just might be.

City Council is set to weigh in on Austin-based Riverside Resources' proposed high-rise residential tower at Fifth and West streets at its upcoming May 22 meeting. So far the project looks like it won't face much opposition.

The planned tower at 718 W. Fifth St. would bring a 162-unit, 430-foot-tall tower to the current home of the Texas Press Association. But before it can be built, the small lot requires that the city approve a floor-to-area ratio increase of 20-to-1. Without waivers, a developer could build up to a 15-1 ratio at that site.

Link: http://bizjournals.com/austin/blog/r...ls.html?r=full

Renderings included inside the link. 39 floors.

[TritonHouston]

I live in Houston and I must admit, I am absolutely amazed by the wonders going on in Austin. I canoed on Ladybird Lake 2 weeks ago and the amount of cranes in the area is just jaw dropping...

[JoninATX]

A few photos I took of downtown today.

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

This view is going to be pretty surreal once all those projects are completed. 5th and West will fill in that gap between 7rio and the Monarch nicely. I can't wait until Seaholm and Block 1 start getting some height to them.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by Syndic

This view is going to be pretty surreal once all those projects are completed. 5th and West will fill in that gap between 7rio and the Monarch nicely. I can't wait until Seaholm and Block 1 start getting some height to them.

It sure will.

[The ATX]

The city released a new Emerging Projects List. It isn't as up to date or accurate as it could be if you an Austin development nerd.

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/DowntownAu...2014-05-27.pdf

[KevinFromTexas]

The Trail Foundation‎ The Boardwalk Grand Opening - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater


The Trail Foundation - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[Syndic]

From the roof of the J.W. Marriott. Found on reddit.

[priller]

New crane up at 5th and Brazos, where they had torn down the garage:




And the Westin is above ground now: