Sure is, I'm excited for them getting that beautiful iconic glass tower. I wish some developer would proposed a skyscraper like that for Austin. I can just imagine what the views will be like once it's completed. :cool:

Don't feel too bad. I noticed that the brochure called Midland "Oil Capital of America" I remember when I was a kid that Wichita Falls was "The Independent Oil Producing City of the WORLD." And look at it now!
Some time in the not too far future, Austin will unveil a plan for something that will blow our minds, and if Midland continues to outdo us, then I suppose we would all consider moving there.

But I wouldn't count on it. I think Austin has a lot more surprises in store for the future! And the views aren't that bad, at all.

There is also a difference between a single company building a tower and a speculative office building.

The only companies in Austin that are large enough to take on such an endeavor are tech firms, and they are nationally pretty fond of suburban office park campuses.

The Midland building site needs a little touch-up:
"(the) thriving community of Midland is just 20 miles NORTHWEST of Odessa." This is kind of amusing. I would have caught that error when I was six years old! Really!
And the developer is in Houston! I need to read some more, just to get a few laughs out of it.

Midland is northeast of Odessa, just fyi developers!

Have a sign up at the Westin (on 5th, across from Eddie V's).

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2815/9...d8b9a8b0_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7444/9...a536fdfd_b.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3822/9...c634ddc2_b.jpg

:previous: Very nice! Love what Austin is doing right now...:yes:

Well that's much much better than the Hyatt.

MUCH better

There is an ever growing impressive amount of big hotels around the convention center. The hotel capacity is finally catching up to the potential of our huge convention center. Austin should be seeing some major conventions in the future. I give props to former city leaders for having the foresight to expand the convention center beyond the needs and hotel capacity of the 1990s.

Actually our convention center is pretty small compared to others. It's 881,000 square feet. San Antonio's is 1.3 million and they're about to expand it further and add another hotel down the street.

The first number is exhibit space the second is total space.

Dallas Convention Center Dallas, Texas 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2) 2,000,000 sq ft (190,000 m2)

George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas 853,000 sq ft (79,200 m2) 1,800,000 sq ft (170,000 m2)

Reliant Center Houston, Texas 706,000 sq ft (65,600 m2) 1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m2)

Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center San Antonio, Texas 440,000 sq ft (41,000 m2) 1,300,000 sq ft (120,000 m2)

Austin Convention Center Austin, Texas 246,092 sq ft (22,862.7 m2) 881,400 sq ft (81,880 m2)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...bition_centers

Wow! I'm pleasantly surprised by the rendering of the Westin. It looks way better than I was hoping for. Thanks for that update, priller.

Yes and this is why I think Austin made a big mistake in not buying the land on which the Fairmont is to be built. Now there is no way to expand the convention center. In a few decades, the city will have to build a new one outside of downtown.

You're kidding, right? The land where the Fairmont is to be built would have been chump change in sqft. The hotel is a much better use by every metric. If Austin wants to expand, they can build up pretty easily.

Speaking of building up, I wonder how feasible it would be to increase the size of the convention center by going up. Has any city ever done this? It seems most convention centers are built around the idea of having as much ground floor space as possible.

Don't forget the JW, Fairmont and Hilton have a combined 300k feet of exhibit space.......And all are close to the convention center.

I'm sure it would be possible to expand the footprint of the convention center to the west on the three blocks bounded by Cesar Chavez, Fourth, San Jacinto, and Trinity. That would almost double the size of the convention center.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/479/7bq7.png

The city better do that quick then. That will already be some expensive realestate even when taken by eminent domain. I'm surprised those blocks haven't been developed into high rises already.

Here's a link to the largest convention centers in the U.S. Austin's is number 25, which isn't too bad. Chicago, Orlando and Las Vegas are the top three and have huge convention centers. Las Vegas in fact, has three convention centers larger than Austin's. But Austin benefits from having its convention center surrounded by maybe ~200 bars and restaurants within several blocks.

http://comicsbeat.com/which-us-conve...er-is-biggest/

The C.H. Johnson Consulting site says they created a masterplan that had the convention center with 450,000 sq ft of exhibition space in the future. I know that's old, but it hints that there may be plans to expand at some point.

http://www.chjc.com/austin.html