Another shot of both the Westin and the new crane on 5th:

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2911/...1b9634e6_b.jpg

Yeah, I saw that today. I noticed, too, there is a crane in Rollingwood near Mopac. I'm not sure what they're working on, but something is under construction for sure.

Rollingwood Center will be 210,000 sq. ft of class A office space in two low/mid-rise buildings. It will be woodsy and hidden from view just across from downtown. Nothing to get very excited about for sure.

^That's what I had assumed, but it was the first I'd heard of it or seen the crane.

By the way, I wasn't able to grab a pic since I didn't have my camera with me, but there should be a really nice skyline view from the parking garage for the Plaza 7000 office building at Mopac & Far West Boulevard.

We are Lame! We aren't even in the top forums anymore! We gotta start posting pics and emerging projects. Where is a good Shonda-article when you need her?

:previous: I know we are lame, and I feel even lamer that I just got back from the new boardwalk and didn't take any pixs.

I for one am unhappy with the boardwalk because it is literally in my backyard. It is annoying. People are still walking it right now at 11 and one person walks by every 10 to 30 seconds. I hope this doesn't become a thing. :runaway:

How far is your residence from the shore? I haven't been on it yet but from what I've seen it looks like it's not right up on the shoreline.

Don't forget the hike and bike trail is now 24 hours so there could be people on it at any time.

Actually, the boardwalk closes at midnight and reopens at 6 am, but don't tell that to the bums.

The nearest portion of the actual boardwalk (section on the piers) to any apartment building, is 100 feet. That's wider than most of the streets in downtown, the bulk of which are typically 80 feet wide. The nearest building to the actual boardwalk is Joe's Crab Shack at just 30 feet. Now, there are sections of the land based trail that are closer than that. I rode down a section of trail along those apartment buildings that are southeast of the American-Statesman, and through there the trail is probably 6 to 8 feet at most from some of the apartment units on the ground floor. Most of the boardwalk sections on the pier are buffeted from the shore by thick underbrush. Only the easternmost section of the boardwalk is wide open to the apartment buildings over there with no underbrush separating them, but again, the boardwalk at that point is 90 to 170 feet away from the building. That's the bowed section of boardwalk, the last section east of I-35.

Check it out on Google Earth. I measured the three sections of boardwalk to get those numbers.

I walked the length of it yesterday. If you include the trail that is actually on land for portions, it comes quite close to several apartments. I loved the trail and think its a great addition to Austin's trails. Having to deal with people around is just something that comes with urban living. I'm sure the crowds will die down after a few weeks.

I will start by admiting I'm a fan of the boardwalk. And live downtown, so I expect people in close proximity and I expect street noise. Comes with the territory.

However, I was very aware that the point where the new trail begins ( from the west) is right on the back door of the first set of apartments. That would really suck if I had lived on the waterfront in a quite environment and now hundreds of poeple were now 5 feet away. Especilly if that was not knowledge given by the complex when I moved in.

So….big empathy coming your way. I hope you can work something out with the landlord to move locations or get out of the lease.

We all have to maintain an empatheic point of view as our city grows at a spazmic pace.
I feel we have to be aware of the impact of "progress" especially on those who were part of the city before this point in time.
I hope the traffic levels off and it calms down in your area.
Perhaps the complex and/or city can help some by at least installing signs pointing out residential areas.
I know that living in areas near downtown….where there is a balacne of proximity and convince coupled with a quieter atmosphere... are shifting.
It's hard to be in that vortex of "progress". I've been chased out of neighborhoods.

We have to maintian a human perspective.
Best of luck with your home environment.

I, for one, always pay attention to how close the trail is to back doors.
:cheers:

^^^^^ Yes it's just 6ft. My residence Was 6ft from the trail. Only just 6ft. It's funny probably one of the only spots where it's really necessary to be a boardwalk and it's the only place where it isn't. My apartment is moved now but no more lakeview. It really sucks.

I ran on the new boardwalk section of trail on Saturday and biked it on Sunday and it is fantastic. It really exceeded my expectations. As I was passing the old Holly Street Power Plant site I started to wonder about the plans for that site and how the trail in that area will be reconfigured. Has anyone seen anything lately about the city's redevelopment plans for that site?

Ah….. hopefully the complex was cooperative.
Sorry you lost the view.

They were. At least the rents lower now. Well I'm over it now that I got my rant. So now on to holly power plant. I'm now very curious to see what gets built there as well. On another note I do know that the construction site right next to my complex on the west side of the new board walk they are building a new 6story building with 2 floors of sub terrain parking and once built it will actually be part of my complex. Getting a new gym and pool will be nice.

Oh okay, I didn't know that. Thanks for clearing that up in the unlikely scenario I decided to go to the board walk at 2 a.m. It does make sense for safety reasons.

Well, so much for that.

National Instruments withdraws from 1,000-job economic incentive deal
Robert Grattan
Austin Business Journal
June 9, 2014

One note about those apartments, I believe there is a metal fence about 2 feet from the wall of the building along the trail. If I lived there I'd be attaching/hanging/draping a sheet of shade cloth to it.

One other idea is to see if the city could have a "quite zone" sign put up before and after those stretches of trail.

Also, there is a neat view of The Austonian along there. It's the only building that sticks up there and is framed by the trees.

I noticed that to Kevin. Seeing The Austonian pop up through the trees like that was amazing. Btw I did notice a few of the people at the apartments next to the trail didn't seem to happy about the amount of people along the trail, while others seemed to embraced the idea of having people run by.