I like the dark vertical stripes and the black/dark grey accents in the base. It gives it character, (ironically) elegance, and makes it look more Austiny. The tan stripes on the edges are also a nice touch that make it look more complete and intricate. This is a beautiful building. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Wow, that is really impressive! I'm looking forward to seeing something like that in our skyline. Just to better understand, am I right in thinking the last of the four pictures, (the one below) is a view of the south face of the building? The view from Cesar Chavez looking north east?

http://venish.com/aps-fairmont.jpg

You're right about the view. That's looking at the Cesar Chavez/Red River corner.

1/3
 

http://i.imgur.com/n2aJ8L6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VDZWkDS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0SUm4pq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bVyJ6py.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MEnH48B.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PrS0OO0.jpg

Awesome photos Kevin. :)

Developers ask for new Congress Avenue hotel zoning

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...ss-avenue.html

As I was reading this I just thought it was the Congress Ave hotel proposal (Hogg building)....WOWWWW AUSTIN IS EXPLODING WITH PROJECTS. I want to see renderings! gahhhhh

Is Wholly Cow the last little bldg on that block next to the small parking lot? Any idea how old it is? And 450 rooms is a lot for such a small site. How tall do y'all think it would be?

So I guess they'll demolish the building that the Wholly Cow Burgers is in? Even if they do that, this will be a fairly small lot. Even with the added space that the burger restaurant would add, the site would be only about half the size of the Hyatt Place lot. Check out Google Maps, it's small. With this being a 450 room hotel, it'll be at least 300 feet or more. And with it being such a slim tower, I'm betting the view of One American Center from the east is safe, particularly from the southeast.

There are a ridiculous amount of tower cranes around Downtown and central Austin in general. The Austin skyline pictures posted in the forum don't do the number of them justice because he cranes are scatterred around in so many places.

I'm wondering if 450 rooms is a misprint by the Austin Business Journal. I don't see how they could possibly build a 450 room hotel on a lot size that is 0.2535 acres. I could see a 45-room boutique hotel, though.

permit

There was an earlier post about this in the archived thread.

Here's a photo I took of the parking lot a few years ago that I uploaded on Wikimedia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-2010-08-d.JPG

Wikimedia

Not a typo. Page 9 of 19 on the permit says 450 rooms.

It says 450 rooms on page 6. That would be a tall hotel because of the small site. Hope this happens.

The bldg was built in 1904. Hate to see the stone facade go.

The Finley Company is a company owned by Tim Finley. He owned the property at 2nd and Congress which is now the JW Marriott. He did a similar request back in 2010:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2010-05-07/1025329/

Aspen Heights Apartments video

http://vimeo.com/80405657

It got me guessing, from the size of the footprint this building will have to go tall. If developers in New York can build tall buildings with a small foot print, so can Austin. :)

The Aspen Heights project is really nice.

The property size with the burger restaurant would be 65 feet by 160 feet. By comparison the Hampton Inn hotel footprint is 75 feet by 125 feet. The Hampton Inn has 222 rooms. So this hotel is going to be at least twice as tall as the Hampton Inn. The Hampton Inn is 166 feet with 16 floors. So it's pretty safe to say it'll be at least 30 floors. It could end up being 400 feet tall.

How high have buildings on in other cities with similar lot sizes?

Also- would it be hard to get past FAR zoning?