Amazing how a couple of supertalls draws major attention to Austin's skyline.

Level 80 is the main roof, meaning this has 79 actual inhabited floors.

We'll just keep that a secret and pretend it's 80 floors...:yes:

From an architecture/engineering standpoint, I wonder if those (seemingly) mechanical floors on 70, 55, 42, and 14 are going to be similar to the wind breaks on 432 Park Avenue in NYC. For all the other criticism that building gets, I've always thought that was a cool part of the design.

Interesting to see though that on these 4 floors the window placement on the west and east sides isn't the same. And for every other floor, the west/east window placement isn't the same on both sides.

Just occurred to me that the crown is reminiscent of Pennybacker Bridge. I hope that was intentional.

Yes - true. However, Level 79 will be known as floor "80" when finished. They usually do not include the 13th floor. Thus, more than likely, media will note that this is an 80-floor tower.

I like that the Bloomberg article refers to this as a harmonica. :)

In the elevations, you can see that there is a (numbered) 13th floor. This really should be listed as a 79 floor building. I have noticed the media has recently unwittingly counted roof levels in elevations as actual floors which isn't correct. I take it they are simply looking at the number in the column and don't bother to see what it's referring to.

Based on elevations, the tower portion seems to be ~65' wide. That makes it just 7' wider than 111 W 57th Street, the famous "skinniest tower in the world." Now, there's still a 400' height gap, but this is a seriously slender skyscraper on the world scale. According to Wikipedia, it'd be the fifth most slender in the world at about 16:1.

I believe that would qualify it as a "pencil tower":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil_tower

I'm always a bit weary of Wiki - But, would it rank 5th overall or 5th under the supertall category?

Frankly, I doubt it ranks 5th in anything. But it seemed to be overall.

I got a bit of a chub reading...dusky golden brise-soleil. My that is a truly gorgeous building!

This is on the 1/23 Design Commission agenda. More info but no new renderings in the backup files.

https://services.austintexas.gov/edi....cfm?id=401300

https://services.austintexas.gov/edi....cfm?id=401301

Man, I feel like they gave a major pass on the big blank wall at street level. The building meets the street and yet it is setback for an extra wide sidewalk. It's not a plaza, so the plaza standards are not applicable. Surely something more could be done with that wall to give it some more life and local character!

Perhaps greenery considering it's north facing and won't bake?

Ugh, this building is like an answer to all my bitching and moaning about new materials and height. Every post I'll make in this thread will likely have "I can't wait for groundbreaking"

Well, it is actually south facing, but it is in such a deep overhang it would get little sun. They would probably need to use something very shade tolerant like Fig Ivy.

Oh! Thanks, that's what I meant. Shade and frost tolerant for sure.

Given all the tech layoffs and possible looming recession, you might have quite a wait. I know. I know. I've been wrong before, but I just have a feeling.