Awesome... will this be Austin’s new tallest?

No. It looks to only be about the 5th to 8th tallest proposed or U/C project. There are three completed projects taller as well. But you wouldn't know it from the rendering because they hid the tall buildings and even photo shopped out the spire on the Fairmont.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7809/...f7248107_k.jpg
Austins Skyline Limits by Gino, on Flickr

^^ Beautiful. Just wow

Couple more questions for locals, how is traffic like in Austin? Is it really bad, bearable? Is the city safe? What areas should I avoid?

(Planning to move in maybe a couple of years. I'll definitely keep watch of this thread)

Edit: I saw someone commented that Austin is known to be a very safe city so I'm glad to hear that!

Now I'm wondering is the transportation in the city. Is there a reliable public transportation going in and out of the city that's not a bus?

Sorry for asking a lot of questions haha. I hope you all have a nice weekend!

Austin is, by all metrics and accounts, one of the safest major cities in the country. Rail transit here is minimal and not usable for most things. The city has tried and tried to expand those options to no avail. Our bus system, however, is one of the best in the US for an anchor city of a midsize metro area despite not servicing most of suburbs, and is definitely better than anywhere in the south regardless of city size save probably Dallas.

Austin is a rare specimen. It's a city without a traditional ghetto or run-down neighborhood(s) - seen in other, older and more established cities.

However, I've heard to stay clear of Cameron Rd (near US-290) and Rundberg Ln. (east of I-35) especially at night. Mostly because of the drugs and prostitution in those areas.

There used to be a lot of rundown areas and even high crime ghettos in Austin, but most of those areas are gentrifying and property values are very high. You can still find pockets of areas that still look pretty bad, particularly in northeast and southeast Austin, but even those areas are close to areas that are fine.

Just for the experience, visitors should explore very hilly west Austin, just to see miles and miles of extraordinary affluence and gorgeous homes and natural landscapes. Downtown is incredible as well.

I've fallen in love with and want to marry this picture, lol! Seriously, Austin is sprouting one hell of a skyline and will really be cooking when all the announced towers are built!

Slurry wall construction at Block 185 Tower.

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net...7c&oe=5D12324C
Eros Alzamora - https://www.facebook.com/independent...type=3&theater

Still unreal how much that area has changed in such a short time.

awesome.

In Texas, high-end renters spur urban luxury boom

It’s not just about new jobs, it’s about lifestyle options
By Patrick Sisson Mar 12, 2019

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vvlZ...8_3e_b.0.0.jpg
The Independent in Austin last May, right as it was topping out. Set to be the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi, it symbolizes a new era of luxury urban housing in Texas. Mary Alice Kaspar

Austin’s ongoing tech boom has been good to Kevin Burns. An Urban Land Institute member and CEO of Urbanspace, a boutique real estate firm with exclusive sales rights for many of the city’s high-end high-rises, Burns has sold units in many of the city’s most expensive apartments and condos. With Google, Apple, and Facebook, among a lineup of tech and oil companies, all opening or expanding their offices in the Texas capital, the broker foresees no shortage of wealthy clients.

“We’re the closest thing you can get to California without state income tax,” he says.

But even though Austin benefits from a concentration of tech firms and talent, Burns’s wealthy clients are not all tech employees. Take the Independent, the new downtown luxury residential project nicknamed the Jenga Tower, set to open with record-setting condo prices ranging from the high $600,000s to over $3 million. Burns has found that interest in pre-sales for the Independent covers both a wide price range and a wide demographic range, including young families and empty nesters.

...

https://www.curbed.com/2019/3/12/182...ZiEI0TU9RcObOo

This is such a great picture and really showcases Austin’s growth!!

To add a few thoughts to this... Traffic depends on your choices. If you're trying to be a single occupant driver and come in and out of downtown you're not helping anyone and you'll be stuck in traffic (pretty true for any great city when trying to lug a 3,000 pound machine around). We're going big on a huge transit bond in 2020. We're currently working on Austin's Strategic Mobility Plan that really looks to move the needle on transit dedicated lanes and the like. I live in East Austin and don't own a car and there are more like me by the day.

There is a strong but fading NIMBY front. They have theirs and they don't want anyone else to be their neighbor. We're doing our best to help them keep losing.

One of the single best things about Austin and what sets it apart from so many cities is the single interstate running through it. We got lucky. Had there been a few more interstates ripping the grid apart and killing the ~100 acres around where an interstate hits an interstate this city would be a very different place. As a result, it's pretty easy to keep urban fabric when leaving DT in all directions. Really a game changer.

As for where to live--within three miles of DT--you pick! We're working to rewrite our 1984 land development code and just so happen to have the best city council we've had in recent memory. Hope is that they'll be able to get the work done that gives us a code that welcomes Compact and Connected development in central Austin as called for by our comprehensive plan--Imagine Austin.

An oddity is that our most urban district is "represented" by someone who abhors urbanism and walkability. We hope to show her the exit door soon enough...

Seeing some of the older plans for expressways tearing through the downtown area, we really did dodge a bullet! That said, in cancelling these plans, they didn't really come up with other alternative solutions, which is why we're facing the growing pains we have today. That said, I'm glad to not have Cesar Chavez be a giant expressway, same with Riverside, etc.

And so many others--3rd St going east (g'bye east Austin), 15th across, MoPac on Lamar instead of where it is--catastrophe. Our transpiration solutions won't come in the way of four wheeled individual autos--we've got to think about how to most effectively move people, not autos.

The Travis Phase I

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...e=image%2Fjpeg

https://i.imgur.com/ci9KhWHh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fhlvkG6h.jpg

AUSTIN UPDATE

As of today, Austin’s central business district has a development pipeline of just over 30 towers either U/C-T/O, U/C, site prep, approved, site plan under review, or have been proposed (publicly) which are at least 300’ in height.

The following is a selection of some of these projects:


6XGuadalupe: 848’/65 floors/Office & Residential/Site Plan Under Review-
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g?format=1600w


The Republic: 708’/46 floors/Office/Site Plan Under Review-
https://i.imgur.com/61EuUdT.png


90 Rainey: ~615’/51 floors/Hotel & Residential/Proposed-
https://i.imgur.com/zfQxMX5.jpg


The Travis – Tower 1: ~595’/50 floors/Residential/Site Plan Under Review-
https://i.imgur.com/bdpTILy.png


Block 185 – Google Tower 2: 589’/35 floors/Office/Under Construction-
https://i.imgur.com/LscJV2o.png


44 East: 585’/51 floors/Residential/Site Plan Under Review-
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1928/4...c912354d_h.jpg


Block 71 – Indeed HQ Tower: 542’/36 floors/Office/Under Construction-
https://www.connect.media/wp-content...ing_Austin.jpg


Hanover Republic Square: 516’/44 floors/Residential/Site Plan Under Review-
https://i.imgur.com/hBMObA7.png


300 Colorado – Parsley Energy HQ: 446’/32 floors/Office/Under Construction-
https://i.imgur.com/8r0wDCN.png


Austin Downtown Marriott: 386’/31 floors/Hotel/Under Construction-
http://i.imgur.com/HHIyNe9.jpg


5th & Brazos – Thompson & Tommie Hotels & Residences: 355’/31 floors/Hotels & Residential/Site Prep-
http://bklarchitecture.com/wp-conten.../09/5B-1-1.jpg


The Avenue – A Hyatt Centric Hotel: 346’/31 floors/Hotel/Approved-
https://nelsenpartners.com/wp-conten...-Level_8th.jpg




*And more 300+ ft. towers are in the works…Stay tuned.

Wow, great stuff!

Austin never stops, wow.

Great post GoldenBoot!!!

Incredible! The Austin skyline is going to be the best in Texas in my opinion!!

Good post GoldenBoot.

Austin forumers tend to hang out in the Austin subforum, and we neglect this thread. There are also a lot more significant projects happening in Austin than the dozen GoldenBoot posted.

Thanks for the link. Lots of cool projects! Austin just keeps rising taller and getting denser!

I think ATX was referring to this link (on this website):

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/foru...hp?forumid=446

Ok.

I wasn't referring to any link, but that's OK. :) Maybe Dariusb was referring to my signature.

I didn't know about Block 185 – Google Tower 2 and that looks AMAZING

Here are a couple more of Google #2. The "G" on top of Google #1 can be seen in the second rendering.

https://i.imgur.com/isGCOZV.png
https://i.imgur.com/ztr8hg9.png
https://www.stgdesign.com/block-185

Sorry, lol! A lot of good info on projects nonetheless.

The site plan was posted for The Travis development at 80 Rainey Street, and for the first time, we have a better understanding of the heights.

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...SS_PLAN_03.pdf

Phase I will be a 594 foot tower with 52 floors of condos.

Phase II will be a 704 foot tower with 60 floors of condos and a hotel.

This is Austin's third tallest proposal. 6 X Guadalupe is proposed at 848 feet with 65 floors and The Republic is proposed at 708 feet with 46 floors.

If approved, what would be the estimated completion dates of each of those 4 buildings?

I'm not sure, but the other two projects are moving through the development process and should be close to approval. The office occupancy rate in Austin right now is insanely high at 99 percent. So, I would imagine The Republic and 6 X Guadalupe would be a sure thing since both of them have office space. The Republic is all office while 6 X Guadalupe is office and condos. The Republic block is just a surface parking lot. So there would be little demolition to do to get started. The 6 X Guadalupe block has a small 4-story hotel on its block that is slated for demo.

Man. I've said it here before and I'll say it again - what's happened in Austin high-rise construction-wise (a complete transformation) between 2000 and 2019 compared to what's happened in San Antonio high-rise construction-wise (essentially nothing) between the same period is truly mind-boggling.

Austin is just mind boggling all around. I just got my 2019 tax assessment for my home in north central Austin and it's just over the top. I had hoped to sell and move, but am now looking at this property as being retirement security due to the continued appreciation. There's always a risk of a housing recession at some point, but my house is paid off. I would be concerned if I were buying in this location right now, though.

I had to make a trip down to south Austin today, and coming back a 2 p.m., both sides of Mopac were virtually at a standstill all the way from the river north to 38th. It wasn't a fluke because I've seen it that way many times. It's just crazy. Everywhere I go it's crowds of people and traffic. And with our lack of good mass transit, it will only get a lot worse. I don't hear newcomers complain much, probably because it's worse where they came from. I don't know for sure.

Same here. The only people I hear complaining are people like me who have been here long enough to have noticed the drastic increase in congestion.
But I have actually had a visitor from out of state laugh hysterically while riding with me because the traffic (both the quantity and quality of the drivers) is bizarrely insane at times.

There's never been a time in Austin's history before where we had 3 buildings under construction over 500 feet tall. Not even 2 over that height before. And we've never had a time before when we had 3 proposed over 700 feet, plus a handful of others around and above the 600 foot mark. This skyscraper boom is truly historic. Even if these projects don't get built the scope of the proposals has been unreal.

Several key blocks are also up for redevelopment where we could see several more big towers (over 700 feet) since they sit outside of the capitol view corridors. I would think at least 5 of them could be contenders for something big.

We also have 14 buildings over 300 feet either in site prep or in some stage of construction (not counting proposed). That's out of the total of 30 buildings in that height range that we have completed at the moment.

Yes, all of this is very cool.

But what's more unreal to me is how, meanwhile, 65 miles down I-35, in the larger city/metro, tower proposals & construction = CRICKETS.

So, so bizarre. Get it together, San Antonio!

I'm already finding Austin's riverfront skyline to be more impressive than Houston's or Dallas'. It's the way it's coming together. It's stunning, and so different from anywhere else in the country. It doesn't even look American to me. Can't explain why, though.

Because the overwhelming majority of Austin's skyline is newer stuff and condos/apts. From most angles of the skyline you only see the towers built after year 2000 and the skyline has more residential buildings than office. In other US metros around Austin's size like Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Orlando, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Jose, Indianapolis, Columbus you either have too much visible old bones in the skyline or too many office buildings dominating the skyline without much of a residential component.

Austin's skyline is more similar in both growth and architecture style to Canadian and Aussie skylines.

Miami's skyline is also overwhelmingly residential.

Funny you say this, for years I've always compared Austin visually to Brisbane, because of the way both cities' skylines sort of hug and follow the contours of their respective rivers.

Incidentally, I think many agree that Miami also doesn't look like other American cities, and has more in common with the skylines of Latin America.

We have at least 11 tower proposals (two are U/C) that are between 500' and 850'. I hope they all (or at least most of them) get built. The skyline will look significantly better at that point.

You're getting greedy dude...

[QUOTE=

Austin's skyline is more similar in both growth and architecture style to Canadian and Aussie skylines.[/QUOTE]

Agree! Our skyline reminds me of Canada skylines.

Austin may not have the most towers but it's quickly becoming my favorite skyline in Texas.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/aust...HV6HFSvILnBfmk

So no office space U/C or proposed? All residential, hotel, restaurant and retail? Seems strange.

There is a lot more office space U/C and in development than usual for downtown Austin, so it's a mystery why they left that off the list. But local news reports on development are typically wrong about a lot of things. It's the SSP posters who notice that and not the general public. :)