Great news on the reduced parking requirement!!!

This will really lower dev costs and may catalyze an unprecedented building boom.

Yes, thank Science for that, its about time.

Yeah, my reaction to the Hotel ZaZa was just kind of meh. I do like the location, though. The 800-804 Hotel, though, is one of the nicer buildings planned in Austin. It really doesn't matter that the tower steps back from the street. What does matter is that the base is right up to the street, and it is. And I like the design. It reminds me of the Carnegie Tower in New York.

Anyway, both of these projects will do a lot of good for their neighborhoods. Both are going in kind of dead areas of downtown.

Anyone else love living in such a booming state or is it just me? :D

A booming country, really. This kind of stuff is happening in cities all over the country. Something to keep in mind this time of year. ;)

Texas is booming moreso than the rest of the country, however.

Someone's been selling steroids to Austin's hotel market. :haha:

Just think, this building set completely vacant in the early 90s. The hotel opened in 1924 as Austin's tallest hotel. It held that title until 1981.

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...n-dolla/nSpT3/

No minimum parking requirements
 

Did the Council vote to nix minimum parking requirements? I think this is a fabulous idea and will lead to more infill development downtown with tall skinny buildings. This is definitely true in two places I have visited: Sao Paulo and Tokyo . Both have extremely narrow 10+ story buildings with zero parking. That's not possible now. Take the building behind the Driskill as an example. It was for sale for years at $1.2 million. Problem is, the footprint is so small there is no way to provide parking. No that barrier is removed. Granted, the rent someone could get for a building with no parking is lower, but removing this requirement makes small sites near areas with large underused parking garages highly desirable. Also, using that site as an example, imagine the marketability of a tall narrow condo or apt building with NO parking but moe affordable than other options downtown with parking. I think they would be gobbled up. Do others agree?

I was mistaken about the courthouse.
 

I hate to revisit this subject, but I want to be the one to draw attention to my folly rather than another. The power-lines around the courthouse did in fact come down today. Good taste prevails and sight lines remain clear.

It would have been an eyesore if they left the power lines up.

thank goodness

It's just too bad that the architect decided that surrounding the building on 3 sides with a 14 foot tall cement wall was a good idea. Reminds me of the 1980s when raw cement walls were in vogue as a design element. The north, south and west sides are complete dead zones now. I am sure the graffiti artists are excited however. The building is cool however....

311 Bowie demo has started
 

Most of the site has already been razed, except Tiniest Bar in Texas and house next to it.

They disassemble the crane at the Whitley apartment site. (3rd & Brazos) last Saturday.

Not defending the look...just informing/reminding that Fed court house are heavily resticted in how they can be designed now. They have to have certainly amount of set backs and protection from street level. That is why you see all the metal pilons around the building and , actually the only positive by product is that the design used the set backs to plant trees/gardens.

Regarding those ugly courthouse cement walls… I am disappointed they're not carrying the stone veneer down to the sidewalk level, where a great many of us will interface with this building daily. Like the Zach/Topfer finish-out, it reeks of budget cuts. Same with the lattice material surrounding the A/C and other mechanical stuff on the roof. Kudos for hiding that mess (are you watching, Larry Speck?) but big wet raspberries for not finishing the job and extending the stone to the very top!

I took some pictures today, some of the new apartment projects across the river and the new gables tower. I'll upload them some time later on.

Crane is going up at the Skyhouse site.

^That's all good news up there. No fugly powerlines at the courthouse, 311 Bowie clearing its site, and SkyHouse getting its crane up.

This article quoted below is talking further about the possibility of parking requirements being removed from downtown development. Here is another article on it that came out last week.


http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl....html?page=all

Yeah, I drove by this morning, the crane is up.

I wish there was more to this.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...land-mall.html

^Good to hear, there is a lot of potential there.

Yay crane is all the way up at Skyhouse.

Photo from today.

http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...76331290_n.jpg

Bandera Quarters
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...57655958_n.jpg

Development across from The Triangle
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...64876896_o.jpg

South Shore Apartments progress
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...24558214_o.jpg

Gables Tower progress
http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...56167627_o.jpg

Great pics, thanks. I think the Gables tower is going to end up being one of the nicer new buildings.

I ran across this summary of west campus projects and repercussions:

http://austincityhomesearch.com/west...t-bubble-2013/

Yeah and once 311 Bowie is finished this area is gonna be arguably the most dense and most aesthetically nicer section of Austin's skyline. Well, at least, I think so...

That it will, and will alter our skyline once Seaholm, 311 Bowie, GW treatment plant and the new Whole Foods new HQ's are built.

Thanks Kevin, the gables tower will be one of the nicer buildings going up as well.

2900 Manor Road TOD

http://www.bigreddog.com/wordpress/w...r-1024x457.jpg

Construction is underway
http://www.bigreddog.com/wordpress/w...9-1024x693.jpg

http://www.bigreddog.com/2900-manor-...rogess-photos/

Is there anything planned across the street in that empty lot? That's another parcel that's prime for a TOD, although I'd prefer something more VMU than 2900.

That site across the street is for sale if I'm not mistaken, and it would also be great to see VMU in that area as well.

At the Marriott, hole is getting deeper:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/8...8fb5322c_b.jpg

This was Sunday. Apparently it was "dirt removal day", since about the only ones working were the backhoe operator and the endless parade of trucks to haul the dirt away.

Thanks for the update Priller, it is getting deeper. I notice while I was on CC street that they tore down an abandon house and cleared that property that it sat on. The site also faces the convention center, anybody know whats going on there? or have any inside information?

The Corazon apartments has started construction

http://www.bigreddog.com/wordpress/w...415&w=950&zc=1

http://www.bigreddog.com/news-item/2...ments-planned/

woo hoo! This is going to really help connect downtown with the east side.

Yeah, that project's a pretty big deal. Hope this encourages more low-rise mixed-use development in East Austin.

On a random note, I bet they found tons of antique bottles from Austins early days and other such things while digging that site out. Whenever I see new construction in old parts of towns I always check their dirt piles. I collect antique bottles from the 1800s and I can usually find a few good things while they do stuff like this.

I'm sure there are all kinds of goodies in there. As I've mentioned you before, my dad collected bottles. We still have a lot of them. I have pictures of him and his friend from the mid 80s crouched down at the construction site of 301 Congress, which is an office tower on the block north of this hotel. Construction workers at that site also found the fossil of a saber-tooth tiger and a mastodon skeleton. Those fossils are on display in the building's lobby.

Two new apartment towers announced in the statesman today that are supposed to start soon. Awesome.

Austin is doing so well.

The 24st. Rio Grande tower breaking ground next month & the 19st. Aquaterra tower breaking ground soon, Austin is doing very well.

As I crossed the river on Mopac yesterday, heading north, I looked over at Austin's skyline and realized that for me, it has become the most beautiful in this part of the country. I know it's not the biggest skyline, but there's something about the way it has all come together that blows my mind.

Yeah - here's the article in the Statesman:

Two more apartment towers planned for downtown
Architect: projects will make ‘distinctive’ mark on skyline
By Shonda Novak
American-Statesman Staff
November 9, 2012

And it's only going to get better, in the same awesome way. The Capital View Corridor and the height restrictions along the waterfront really direct Austin's urban development in a unique fashion. It will definitely give Austin its own look and character. It already has.

I am interested in hearing more of what you mean by this comment. Especially, "It will definitely give Austin its own look and character." What are some of the differences from other cities? The skyline really does look great in Austin.

Now if we can get a law limiting the use of stucco on high rises then these new buildings will continue to look good for years to come. The new Hyatt Place is an example of how "ugly" even new stucco can look. Stucco on a high rise just says "I am a very cheap building...I was built to just make money NOT increase the quality of the cityscape."

That's good to hear the 7th & Rio Grande Tower will start. That should help to burst the bubble for highrise development in that area of downtown.

And that's cool about StreetLights at Barton Springs (formerly Aquaterra), although, I'm still not sure about the design. It's supposed to be a long building, running east/west along the south side of that super block. I just hope it doesn't look too imposing and monstrous since it will be very visible as you approach downtown from the south. The only height I've ever seen for the building is 19 floors and 199 feet. That would make it the tallest building south of the river. The next tallest is the Hyatt which is 185 feet tall. Judging from the height of 199 feet with 19 floors, I'm assuming they're planning about 6 levels of above ground parking. Park levels usually are very low, maybe only 7 feet. So 6 of them would be 42 feet. That would leave about 157 feet for actual residential levels.

Here's the architect's website. They're also working on some designs for East Avenue. One of them is a 17-story apartment tower. They also have a 16-story condo tower planned that will overlook Lake Travis.
http://www.rhodepartners.com/webbrochure.pdf

Sure. Height restrictions and view corridors arrange and organize skyscrapers. They direct height to certain locations. Instead of Austin having gigantic buildings along the waterfront, like some cities, we'll have something that looks a little less intimidating and imposing from that angle. The buildings in front will not block out the buildings behind, so it will look graduated and picturesque. View corridors prioritize landmarks and build around them. They emphasize buildings that residents feel like give their city its character. In Austin, it's really just the state capitol building, but in places like Washington D.C. or London or Paris they have the potential to have a much greater impact, as there are more landmarks and more buildings to prioritize and emphasize. Of course, D.C. still has those hardcore height restrictions that make it more like a European city than an American one (which I don't necessarily mind), but if they ever were to loosen those restrictions, view corridors would undoubtedly need to be used.

Eventually, this all led to Austin forming a deeper understanding of downtown and resulted in it being organized into different "districts", which further directed development, rather than it being like Houston where anything can be built anywhere, due to the absence of zoning codes. Austin's development is more deliberate, less random, than in some other places. That's good urban planning and it's what differentiates us from lots of foreign cities, in particular.

So, basically, Austin's urban landscape will (continue to) develop according to what we value, what we prioritize, and what culture different areas of downtown have developed. We just have to keep standing up for who we are and what we want Austin to be so that we don't become a bland, cookie-cutter city, but instead remain a unique, charming place, like we've always been.

Some updated construction photos. All iPhone pics, so forgive.


Whitley:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8208/8...e271d4b6_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8...820ee292_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8342/8...c70f6bae_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8...241308d5_b.jpg

They've completely removed the road between the Whitley and the hotel:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8197/8...47b65f37_b.jpg


JW Marriott:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8350/8...5e2d386c_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8350/8...bcc219e9_c.jpg


Gables at Park Plaza:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8201/8...53d9eaa2_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8...5dc85b65_b.jpg

That Whitley building doesn't look bad actually. And what are they doing with the road between Whitley and the Hotel? Maybe putting underground power lines? Would they have to remove the entire road for that?