The problem is where would you put the bypass? If I was playing Simcity this would be easy, I would fix 130 and make it free. But that probably ain't gonna happen. So dealing with current realities, the idea of transferring truck traffic(or the majority of it) is about zero.

I think most people forget those truck don't all just drive through Austin. Many are delivering goods TO Austin. How many trucks a day does it take for just one grocery store, much less all of them? How about Amazon? How about every other industry in this fast growing town?

It isn't new information - but maybe surprising to some. It was stated at the ULI presentation this morning that 70% of traffic on I-35 is local.

Hazardous goods are already not allowed on I-35. TxDOT / CTRMA has experimented with lowering tolls on 130 to lure truck traffic with some limited success. Construction on I-35 will probably convince trhough trucks to use 183 or 130, but a lot of trucks are going to points in between those roads connections to I-35.

How long before ATX gets a 1000 footer?

Unless there is a surprise announcement, the ATX East Tower seems like the best bet. But I suspect it will be around 900'. The site plan could be filed any day now.

Assuming the renderings we’ve seen are what is currently planned, the west tower appears slightly taller than the Austonian which would be around 700 ft. The east tower is about 30 floors taller so I think it’s a 1000 foot building.

The tallest tower in the rendering (ATX East) won't be like the actual tower because the rendered tower includes office while actual tower is all residential. I'm basing my 900' number on the site footprint and the number of residential units and likely parking levels, not on the marketing rendering.

Agree 100%. Perhaps the most unflattering angle I've seen of downtown + uptown.

Is this "skyscraperpage", or "historicbeautypage", though? I personally could care less about the latter, and S.A. should be embarrassed about the state of its skyline, particularly for a city of its size.

Hate to say it, but until S.A. attracts more progressive elected officials, residents and business leaders, I think its skyline will continue to be a lost cause for the foreseeable future.

We have enough buildings proposed now to give us 115 buildings over 200 feet. That doesn't sound too exciting, but the year I was born, we had a whopping 9 buildings in that bracket with two more under construction. We also had a whopping 51 high rises back then, compared to almost 250 now.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n....html?ana=kxan

Boomtown for sure! Go Austin!

It's crazy to think that we have more high rises under construction and proposed now than the total number Austin had the year I was born. We're basically adding the number that Corpus Christi and El Paso have combined, and that includes every single building over 115 feet of theirs.

Wow that is crazy to think about! Austin’s growth is phenomenal.

What I love so much about what's happening in Austin is that most of the highrises being built are downtown instead of spread across the city in multiple highrise districts. I know some may disagree but I think Austin's downtown is shaping up to be the liveliest and most heavily populated of Texas' major cities.

I think that is indisputable. San Antonio is pretty lively at River Walk level, but the street level is comparatively quiet. Downtown Dallas and Houston are quite sleepy in comparison to Austin.

This is true. For now. Austin does have a nice vibe to it.

Totally agree!!

It for sure is!

I've done a horrible job keeping up lately - grateful to you guys who keep things updated on here. Just curious - and not trying to do the city vs city thing... but how many highrises are currently under construction/seriously proposed in Austin's downtown/West Campus, etc., compared to, say, Houston or DFW downtown areas? And, for the sake of fun...let's include Uptown/Little Elm in Dallas and perhaps some surrounding areas in Houston. Is that fair? Thinking more of central core area rather than CBD alone. I know that's a bit ambiguous.

With that, current urban populations of each - the real reason for my curiosity as per the discussion above.


I'm impressed with downtown Austin. We've been back in Texas for a while now, actually, and have split our time between Austin and DFW. I've spent some time in both downtown areas. Fun stuff is happening all around, for sure. At the same time, we've been staying in the suburbs and have thoroughly missed the walkability of Asian cities....