Deleted by original poster.

Disagree on several points.

The first point is that the residential buildings being the tallest in Austin suggests that there is pent up demand for high rise living and this is further evidenced by how tall and large these projects in Austin are. High rise living isn't as widespread in most US cities the way it is in Austin. This is more in line with Australian or Canadian cities than it is the US cities. Only NYC, Miami, and Honolulu have this much residential high rises in their cores. Other cities, yeah they have highrises for living but those are a small share of the highrises in those cities and not by any means a majority. In 98% of the US cities, the tallest building is an office building or a mixed use building that includes some office, which are well known to have larger floor to ceiling heights than residential and hotels. I mean to have a supertall proposed and moving forward in its permitting process during the pandemic is a very big deal.

The second point that I disagree with is the suggestion that Austin's economy is not sufficient enough to get tall buildings. That's a crazy opinion. Austin has been in the Top 3 for job growth and GDP growth for the entire last decade, the other two places on that level are San Jose and San Francisco. Austin is poised to soon be one of the first major cities out of the pandemic recession and into job growth, along with SLC. And the vacancy rate in Downtown Austin is 8% compared to 20% in Houston and a few other major cities. And it’s almost above 15% in most major US cities, considering what the office market has had to go through since the pandemic, Austin is still a very tight office market.

Austin also leads the US in office space construction the last 3 years straight, it's Austin and Nashville as the top two for that. Even in the pandemic, there are large companies looking for large amounts of office space. Facebook is in the market for 1 million square feet in DT Austin and TikTok is said to be looking for a big chunk of space in DT Austin as well.

While I don’t think lack of tall office buildings means there’s a lack of economic activity, Austin is just different.

Downtown Austin has been more Vancouver-ish than a traditional American downtown in terms of what’s being built. The state government is upgrading and building a lot of mid sized office buildings. Tech is now building a few large office buildings. It will look a lot different in a few years but most of the office is being built not in downtown like everywhere else.

I live near the Domain and North Austin is just now starting to look like West Houston or North Dallas in terms of height.

Young man, I tried to be nice...but, get the hell out of here. Don't turn this thread into a c-v-c battle!

Houston will never be Austin and Austin will never be Houston!

For what it's worth...Houston's office vacancy rate is more than 1200 basis points higher than Austin's at the moment (13% for Austin versus 25.5% for Houston. That's the highest vacancy rate of any large American city in 2020/three straight years of over 20% vacancies)!

City v. City is against the rules. Period. You should know any comment to that effect will provoke an argument.

Making rude comments (you’re being very belittling of Austin, frankly) that are designed to provoke and then telling someone to calm down after the expected response to the provocation is a hallmark of abusive behavior. Take that behavior elsewhere.

Which should be cautionary considering the tech bubble.

Deleted by original poster.

You might appreciate this then: When I lived in North Austin, it was so long ago that the Mo-Pac ended at Far West Blvd.

That must have been shortly after this. MoPac wasn't quite extended to Camp Mabry at this point.

https://i.imgur.com/SD9L6Fy.png

A year or two...;)

That's a wild picture! Hard to imagine.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3125...7i16384!8i8192

That building still exists too. It's slightly cut off but it's still there.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...da12fb56_k.jpgDowntown Austin Panoramic by PrimaPix Visuals, on Flickr

These were posted by Urbannizer in the subforum:

New renderings of The Republic (46 stories/708' tall)


http://www.dudapaine.com/portfolio_page/the-republic/

http://www.dudapaine.com/wp-content/...epublic_06.jpg

http://www.dudapaine.com/wp-content/...epublic_03.jpg

http://www.dudapaine.com/wp-content/...7-1100x619.jpg

Looks good.

Looks great!

Love it! Pickard-Chilton?

Duda Paine.

Office building! I take back everything I said! ;)

Sploosh!

This isn’t the only one, and it’s been in the works for awhile.

From what I can tell, it’s the first 700+ foot office tower that has been approved.

We have multiple downtown office buildings of various sizes in the works. I don’t recall you specifying a 700’ threshold.

Actually, I mentioned 700+ feet, though not explicitly as a threshold, in a post that you yourself quoted. But, it doesn’t matter, I already deleted my offending posts and I’m finished with this. I added a wink smilie to my post from earlier today to signify that I meant the post to be taken as humor. Basically admitting that I was being a jerk before.

Being a jerk and exhibiting hallmark abusive behavior are not the same thing. Other forumers may excuse it, but I am a survivor of abuse and I will not. You’ve got to do more work than just a posting a coy wink face emoji after deleting all the evidence. Maybe start with a genuine apology where you admit your mistake and change the behavior pattern?

This post itself is in line with the abusive pattern, where after the fact the abuser erases evidence and then jests about the infraction without ever showing remorse.

I deleted the posts so as to not incite anyone else’s anger and because it was pointed out to me that it was against the rules. Not to cover up evidence.

Any building calling itself The Republic in the Texas state capital better have some pretty overt kitschy Texanness to it. Slap a cowboy hat on that sucker as the crown. Or have a spire with a star on top. SOMETHING.

I like it, though. I'd love to work there.

That is one very sexy shade of blue, the Republic!

The thought of Austin having the tallest in Texas makes me smile. Not just that it's my hometown and that would be totally badass to see, but also that little ole Austin that always chose to do things differently in Texas could achieve the same records that the rest of the state did.

Still, Austin has had 4 new tallest in less than 20 years, so it's not exactly like we're hurting for a new tallest.

I will say, too, that if 98 Red River does get built we likely won't see a new tallest for a long time, although, I had sort of thought the same about 6 X Guadalupe after it broke ground.

Here are the numbers for Texas' big cities and the years their last 5 tallest record holders were completed.

El Paso - 2020, 1971, 1962, 1930, 1921.

Austin - 2019, 2010, 2008, 2004, 1984.

Corpus Christi - 1988, 1983, 1951, 1942, 1929.

San Antonio - 1988, 1929, 1928, 1926, 1890.

Dallas - 1985, 1974, 1965, 1954, 1943.

Fort Worth - 1983, 1982, 1974, 1957, 1921.

Houston - 1982, 1980, 1970, 1963, 1962.

-

3 of those have since been demolished. One each in Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi.

Not to mention that the Austin list may soon look something like: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2019

Another thing I like about Austin is that the majority of their high-rises are located downtown and not spread all over the city.

Not likely, though. After 6 X Guadalupe is finished in 2022, we'll have 98 Red River to look forward to beat it. That means that whatever new tallest is built after that will have to be taller than 1,022 feet. At the moment, I'm not sure we'll have anything else that would be. I think the ATX Tower East will probably be around 950 feet, but I could be wrong about that.

Also, I think before Austinites gloat too much about it or before other places feel jealous or maybe worry about their reputations now, nothing has changed. I love every square inch of Texas and one place getting new developments just makes me happy for them. It doesn't have to take away from another place if they do. Sure, Austin is kinda going nuts now, but we have a lot of catching up to do. I don't see it as city versus city. I look at the other cities in Texas as the standard to live up to. And it's not that we're trying to be like them or one up them. It's just the other cities have always been bigger so yeah, we used them as yardsticks. Just don't have a hot head about it.

Not to start any city-versus-city argument, but a certain large swampy city some 160 miles east-southeast of Austin has, that I can think of off the top of my head, at least 10 high rise apartment or condo buildings existing including two under construction in Downtown. I think all are more than 20 stories. The two under construction are 46 and 42 stories. Three more just outside Downtown in Midtown. I'm sure Dallas also has a number of high rise residential buildings in its downtown. It's very easy to not stay up-to-date with what is going on in other cities.


I'm not saying this to put Austin down, just pointing out that it's hard to notice the new high rises in Houston's downtown when they're surrounded by taller buildings. As for high rises outside of downtown, there is a lot to be said for having a 30th floor view OF downtown out your window.

My recent jealous bitchiness notwithstanding, I love what is going on in Austin. Though I'd be lying if I said I'd be happy for Austin to take the tallest title from my hometown, the Great Swampopolis to the East.

Edited to add: I am constantly disappointed and pissed that so much that is built in Houston is dull and conservative compared to Austin and Dallas. With the exception of the MFAH and the Menil.

Oh I'd never put down any of the Texas Titans. I love them all. I just made that comment because if Austin built more of it's current buildings outside of downtown it'd take away from how impressive it is. Houston's skylines, especially downtown, uptown and TMC, are all impressive by themselves. Could you imagine the view of all 3 were joined together?

LOL! We architecturally-interested swamp critters do that constantly!

Ha, there are a lot of buildings in Austin that have gone up in the last 10 to 15 years that really don't do much for me, and I'm more than a little disappointed they have become the face of our skyline. I'm also really critical of the lighting of our skyline which really leaves a lot to be desired. I think Dallas and San Antonio really have the best lit skylines in Texas, but there are some notable exceptions in the rest of the state.

Yep. When I wrote my list I was just thinking about everything in the works that could be taller than the Independent. Of course, unless they somehow were completed before 6X, they would not be a NEW tallest, just taller. Even so, our top five wouldn't likely have to reach back past 2008.

Ok. I've read comments from some of you saying that the new towers in Austin aren't your cup of tea or on the bland side. In your opinion, what are some architectural styles you'd like or architects you'd want to build in the city?

I personally think a much taller version of the Frank Erwin Center should be built. Maybe 800' or so....

:):runaway:

What feels so strange to me is that the Austonian was Austin’s tallest building for twice as long as Frost. That just doesn’t really register, seems like Frost was the dominant building for a long time. But I guess it was just that I was younger and time passed more slowly then.

I seem to remember that being the original, pre-value engineered, plan.

Really? Sure reads like your intent is to incite one. Add value to an Austin discussion or take your actions elsewhere. If we were interested in Houston developments, we know where to find said information.

Don’t bother engaging with him. Austin is gonna do Austin and we will see him in the rear view mirror.

For what it may, or may not, be worth, that comment of mine came about as a response to a different poster having said directly to me something to the effect that Austin is the only place in Texas that is building so many residential properties in its downtown. There is only one city in TX that I have enough knowledge of to use as an example of how that claim is mistaken. I probably should have responded to that specific person instead of the person I did respond to, but he/she did not seem all that amenable to discussion.

As I said in the part of the comment that you did not quote, my intention was only to show how we may be unaware of what is happening elsewhere. We may think things happening in our cities are only happening in our cities. The surge in downtown residential properties is, of course, a national trend.

It has been made abundantly clear to me that there are enough people here who don't want to hear even (what I thought was) gentle teasing about Austin's entry into the big leagues. Now I know. I will try not to do it again. I can't promise that I will succeed, though.

As I've said elsewhere, Austin's growth (both in quantity and quality) is just phenomenal to me. I first moved there in 1976. (There was only one Chinese restaurant at the time!) In that time Austin has gone from being a place I wanted to escape from to a place I know I would enjoy living in.

If you see me slip back into some mild snarkiness at some point, just know that I'm experiencing a moment of envy at what seems to be Austin's less risk-averse development style as well as experiencing frustration at what I see as so much that is disappointing and downright boring (or worse) being built in Houston.

Hawaiian airlines has already increased its service to AUS (before it even starts). Sighting increased demand, the flight will move from 2 per week to three per week from May 28 to August 13, 2021. Service starts April 21.

Also, Spirit has added Pensacola to its non-stop offerings from AUS.

This is great to hear!

So, while I have come to love all the glass, and for sure there have been some nice glass towers, some of them are a little more repetitive and average than I'd care to see. And not just that, but I don't want them to become monotonous. I'd like to see some more stone on our skyline. 300 West Sixth I think is a bit underrated, and I would like to see more of that. Some more Texas limestone and granite.

I agree. Like they say variety is the spice of life.

I'd like to see more brick. Stone also, but especially brick. Just no more stucco, please. :)