We need that UT Tech Center plus, honestly, more for that program.

Wow, that new UT engineering center is definitely going to be a highrise, and the design is very nice. Looking at the renderings of it, the Ernest Cockrell Jr Hall Tower is located to the north of it. That building is 172 feet with 11 floors, so I would estimate this new building will probably be around 160 feet tall. It'll be immediately south of that taller building and north of the Engineering-Science Building. It looks like they'll demolish that skinny little tower between those two buildings, and possibly even the Engineering-Science Building, which is itself a highrise - 118 feet tall.

Here's the PDF with more details and a larger rendering.
http://texasexes.org/userdocs/eercalcalde.pdf


Those links bring up some points. UT has lacked very many upgrades to its campus facilities. Most of the buildings that are "new" are pushing 40+ years old. When you look at the campuses of other major universities, they've added new buildings to replace their old buildings which are actually costing them more money to maintain because they are older and falling apart. Texas A&M is one university to look at. They've added several new major campus buildings for their programs. It's kind of shocking actually that our state's flagship school hasn't added much in the last 30 to 40 years. We've only just recently started to see new buildings being built at UT, but this is the first major one.

To put this into perspective, if it gets built at that size and height, it will be tallest building built on campus since 1973. And that year, the Capitol was still the tallest building in Austin. There has only been one single highrise built on campus since 2007, and that is the Almetris Duren Residence Hall near 26th & Guadalupe. Before that the last highrise to be built on campus was the Robert Moore Lee Hall in 1974.

By the way, at 160 feet tall today that building would be the 65th tallest building in Austin.

Another crane base is on site at the JW Marriott site. So it looks like we will be having 3 tower cranes.

Some pics I took today:

3eleven was a beehive of activity. There were trucks and people and machinery doing things everywhere you looked. It was hard to even get down the street. They were really getting after it. As you can see, they have the crane bases up already. Won't be long before the cranes are on site.

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

http://i.imgur.com/B701K8rh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/l8W83bth.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IwP8BF6h.jpg

Hyatt Place, as you can see, because they've finally put up the main sign. It's supposed to light up, right?

http://i.imgur.com/d4PCDBDh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/slFHz6lh.jpg

I saw that they were moving in some mattresses and stuff, so it might not be long now before it's open and lit up.

http://i.imgur.com/A9bzb0Xh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bag9Ihth.jpg

I was finally able to get in close and see the streetscape in-between the buildings.

http://i.imgur.com/INod8xWh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZWwt6efh.jpg

Although the street is still all torn up there.

http://i.imgur.com/jPb0FY2h.jpg

Whitley's got a lot of the windows installed now.

http://i.imgur.com/IN4HuQzh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/orou0Jkh.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/sQj4LDmh.jpg

And I guess a makeshift door.

http://i.imgur.com/j6y5FHsh.jpg

I bet the Hyatt is trying to be open before SxSW. They weren't taking reservations for March the last time I checked. But with a virtual sellout of all other hotels in Central Austin for SxSW, they have a considerable incentive to be open in March.

The size and breadth of the JW Marriott site never ceases to amaze me. It was beautiful just to look at and just watch. So many people working in all different areas toward one end-goal. Pretty amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. It's a pretty cool place to go take your lunch and eat it, if you work in the area.

http://i.imgur.com/e7SrBeSh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8VIimtLh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/F0NZyx4h.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/Uw35zrrh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ewagD49h.jpg

Also got a few of SkyHouse. It seems like every few days they've added another level.

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

http://i.imgur.com/Aa1CXHAh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7lKQPlYh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/i2smnPjh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/S7Py9gmh.jpg

I like how you can see the city in the background. Seems like it might end up having some pretty decent views.

Not too interesting, but a video of Highball being demoed for Lamar Plaza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rItpyxBZu1M

Wow, that looks really satisfying. I'd like to do that to half of Austin. It certainly needs it.

Something, that AusTXDevelopment posted not to long ago on SSC, about new projects that will be starting this year.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps587bcae9.jpg

There's a new restaurant that recently open up at the 300 W. 6th building called Gloria's Latin Cuisine.

http://www.gloriasrestaurants.com/lo...glorias-austin

Sounds nice, I'll have to check it out next wk. :)

Dell Medical School
 

Dell family foundation to donate $60 million for UT medical school, local health care

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/d...-for-ut/nT98b/

Did anyone see the 6 p.m. KVUE local news? They were trying to show a comparison shot of the Austin skyline from 1990 to current. Both photos were taken at the 360 overlook, but the current photo didn't show the new construction, which apparently was blocked either by where the photographer was standing, or maybe the photo was cropped. Hard to know what happened. Does anyone have a really comparison from the early '90s versus current?

I don't think I have one of the 1990's but I had one that I posted somewhere in the Austin section of the first ACL Festival which was 2002 and right before Frost was built. I can't think of anything that was built from 1990 to when Frost was built. Maybe the condos on Lamar by Idea City where Ann Richards lived?

I'll see if I can find that photo from the first ACL Fest. It is on this forum somewhere, but probably buried pretty deep in the Austin section.

Edit: In other words all the tall buildings started popping up when Kevin jointed the forums. Coincidence? I think not. :D

lol I don't think I had anything to do with that. :D I signed up sometime in 1999 actually. Yes, the forum goes back that far. There was a major forum upgrade in the summer of 2001, that's the reason for my 2001 join date. If you check the community list in the User CP link at the top of the forum, you'll see a lot of forum members that signed up in July of 2001. Most of those were the original/old school forumers like myself.

I don't really have any photos from that far back either except maybe a few stray ones my parents took. I didn't really start taking a lot of photos until the middle of the last decade.

And no, there wasn't much built between 1990 and 2000. The tallest building to break ground during the 90s was the Travis County jail/justice center in 1997 and it finished in 2001. There were also two midrises in 1998 and 1999 that broke ground those years. The tallest building to finish construction during the 90s was the Texas Medical Association building in downtown in 1991. The Travis County jail/justice center was the first 200 footer that had started construction in 10 years. The last sizable buildings had finished in 1987, and it wasn't until 1997 that the jail broke ground and then finished in 2001. So that was a long stretch of little highrise construction in Austin.

Texas Chain. One at the Domain. Killer margaritas! Love the Ceviche Salad. !
Already brought of life to that part of 6th

301 Congress was built in 1991 and 300 West 6th was built in 2001, before Frost Bank in 2003. Before that, the "newest" highrises were San Jacinto Center, 100 Congress and One Congress Plaza - all built in 1987. Below is a cool interactive aerial map of downtown Austin development from 2000 to 2012. The Statesman originally published this in 2011 so the W is not in the aerial, but they do include it.

http://www.statesman.com/interactive...wn-development

[That link is Flash, so it won't work on your Apple products unless you have the Photon or CloudBrowse apps.]

Edit: I work in commercial real estate so I only track office and industrial product. I'm sure there were tall residential/hotel buildings built sometime around that time too. They are just not on my radar. :)

301 Congress was started in 1984 an completed in 1986 according to emporis

And Bevo - the condos you're thinking about is The Nokanah which started construction in 2001 and was completed in 2002.

Plaza Lofts started in 2000.

Hilton CC Hotel started in 2001.

I wish I could find a way to post it. I've got a spreadsheet file of Austin building heights that I've been putting together for 15+ years. Besides building heights it also includes their completion dates of course, but I also created another sheet listing buildings by decade and by their construction start date. The data came from photographs mostly.

Frost actually finished in 2004. It was topped out in June of 2003. I remember watching Back to the Future in Republic Square Park at their "Movies in the Park" showing, and I could look over and see the building before they started putting on the crown. They even had the mechanical penthouse lit up and I could see the tree on top signifying it had been topped out. I also distinctly remember the sound from the movie echoing off the Intel Building's shell. That would have been right around the time they halted construction, or just before it. Frost started in 2001. My brother and I went with Greg from the forum and sat in the back of Greg's truck and watched them put up the cranes for the building right across Brazos. The building broke ground on November 27, 2001, which I'll never forget since it was my 21st birthday.

300 West Sixth broke ground in March of 2000. I remember in 1999 when the rendering was posted on the forum by CTroyMathis. It was finished in 2002.

You are correct. I was looking at the renovation date, not the completion date. It underwent a major renovation in 1991. I should have dug deeper.

On this one I was going by the certificate of occupancy, which was issued in 2001. Sorry for the confusion. :)

Can y'all tell me what this is in their photo. It has no discription but the austin skyline in the background.:shrug:
It's the picture in the upper right side.

http://www.lakeflato.com/projects/on-the-boards.asp

No worries. I'm actually missing the dates for some buildings, mostly hotels. And something else I'm interested in is their start dates. I've been trying to piece together a list of building start years and finish years based on old photos I've collected and also real estate data.

Besides creating a building height database it also includes the dates, so I can say how many highrises were started, finished and built during any given year or decade and be able to compare the data.

I just figured out a way to create a JPEG image file from spreadsheets. It's by using Google+'s Google Drive spreadsheet and then using a Google Chrome add on that I found that takes a screen shot of the entire page, not just what you can see. That was the problem before, my building list was longer than the screen size, so you couldn't capture the whole list. The screen shot add on creates a PNG image file that you can open in any photo editor and re-size and save as a JPEG file. That will allow me to host the image just like any other photo and post it on the forum. The next step is to move all the data into the Google Drive spreadsheet, because for the last year or so I've been using only an Open Office spreadsheet.

I think that was from one of their boards for the Waller Creek competition.

"Plans for Taco Cabana site grow grander"

http://assets.bizjournals.com/austin...Cabana.jpg?v=1

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...w-grander.html

They installed the third crane base today at the JW Marriott site.

http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin

311 Bowie
 

First crane is up today.

Here are a few shots I captured yesterday evening. Henderson at W6th

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...C_0890-001.JPG

311 Bowie crane is directly in front of Spring in this shot.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p...C_0888-001.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-R...4/DSC_0886.JPG

Crane base has been installed for a new 6 story building at the Triangle.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8352/8...27b47e7b_z.jpg

Crane for 311 Bowie.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8517/8...de976516_z.jpg

Gable Park tower rising
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8473/8...2e0948a7_z.jpg

Skyhouse Austin
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8328/8...101aeb58_z.jpg

So how many cranes do we have around downtown?

You should be able to count them from your deck. :)

11 with 3 more on the way.

Future Downtown Arena
 

Looks like UT and the city are in early discussions about building a new arena to replace the Frank Erwin Center......They should build it near the convention center.

By Kirk Bohls

American-Statesman Staff

http://www.statesman.com/news/sports...y-texas/nWFC7/

3. Texas is exploring the idea of looking “down the road” for an alternative site for a new basketball arena if the location of the Erwin Center and perhaps the Penick-Allison Tennis Center are needed for the university’s new medical school. Texas is even considering a joint-use facility with the city of Austin, and men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds said the school is checking out new arenas at Louisville and Nebraska and in New York. “I think it’s likely” that a replacement arena will be needed, Dodds told me. “No decision has been made, no timetable set.”

Thank. God. If they build it bigger (which is likely) we'll be able to host a DNC or RNC convention!!!

Sounds like this might be the perfect way to increase convention space while not taking out a city block that might be used only occasionally. It could be used for all the things the Frank Erwin Center is now in addition to giving the city the ability to host even more national conventions.

I'd be a bit surprised if whatever was selected isn't a bit more contiguous with the University. I would think repurposing some of those parking lots in the capitol complex would be feasible (desirable even).

The next most obvious place for it is Auditorium Shores - but I get that won't ever happen.

I'm sure most of you have seen the Apple site plan posted on the Austin Tower's blog:

http://www.austintowers.net/Austin_D...g-unveiled.php

If you want to read the whole permit submittal and see the site plan rendering and other materials, it's posted on the City of Austin's permit site. Click on the link below, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click the very first "View Attachment" button for the 37-page PDF that includes the site plan on Page 16.

https://www.ci.austin.tx.us/devrevie...erRSN=10856594

Most of you have probably already seen this, but here are the links if not. Not Austin, but WOW what a view. I know it wouldn't be as spectacular but it would be cool if someone did a formal interactive pano from the Austonian. I've seen some stills and some still panos but not interactive. If there's one out there let me know. :)

Panoramic View From The Worlds Tallest Building (article and link):
http://skift.com/2013/01/30/the-360-...lest-building/

Burj Khalifa Pinnacle Tower Panoramic View (direct to the interactive panorama):
http://dubaimap.hipa.ae/index.html

I thought this was a cool picture from today on Statesman.com:

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/l...ro-Rail-06.jpg

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/l...hen-hit/nWFB8/

Let's aim for DNC much more so than the other.

By the way, the picture above is certainly cool. This skyline, if you take a picture from 2000 and then one when we get to 2030, it will look so dramatically different. It would be an unrecognizable city.

The Erwin Center is actually large enough to host the RNC (we also meet the hotel room requirements for that convention), but we meet neither the arena size requirement nor the hotel room minimum number for the DNC (though the hotel room minimum should be passed within a few years given the number of rooms under construction and proposed).

Good. The FEC sucks for basketball.

Here are a few shots this weekend from the West Campus area

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...4/DSC_0827.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8...4/DSC_0828.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...4/DSC_0846.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...4/DSC_0841.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8...4/DSC_0794.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...C_0798-001.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...C_0848-001.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...4/DSC_0870.JPG

I'd rather UT build an arena that is a bit smaller and more intimate. The FEC is absolute crap. It's too cavernous. I'd also rather the city not be involved at all.

I don't give a damn about hosting either the RNC or DNC.

I'm with Izppjb. Rather the city not be involved.

I also don't really care about it or things like the RNC/DNC or whatever. I'd rather the city not shoot for those sorts of thing, but things that will stay around. Like SXSW, ACL, F1 and ROT are the sort of things that could (and likely will be) around every year for a very long time.

... the economic impact of having a larger arena able to host events like that is worth it, but I do agree that the city probably shouldn't be involved. Yes, events like SXSW stick around, but there isn't any harm wooing events that are one-offs.

Where exactly was that crane? Is it by any chance at the southwest corner of The Triangle?

There's a project at 4527 North Lamar at that site that is 6 floors. The building elevation shows it being 79 feet 4 inches to the main roof.

Site plan here, the file with the height/rendering is 011.

The site plan calls the lot "The Triangle Tract 5"

https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=10715409

Thanks Kevin, also the location is right off Lamar close to the training course they have out there, you can't miss it.

Update on 214 Barton Springs:


STREETLIGHTS RESIDENTIAL, HUNT COS. BREAK GROUND ON APT. TOWER

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Affiliates of StreetLights Residential and Hunt Cos. have formed a joint venture to break ground on a 300-unit, high-rise apartment tower, located at 214 Barton Springs Road in Austin. The project's ownership group consists of Hunt Development Group LLC and Hunt Barton Springs LLC (both affiliates of Hunt Cos.), along with SLR Residential at Barton Springs LLC, an affiliate of StreetLights Residential.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps55d27b21.jpg

Austin-based Rhode Partners designed the 19-story glass and brick tower. The interior of the property has been designed to emulate a boutique hotel with an expansive lobby, resort-style pool deck, fitness center and rooftop lounge. The high-rise will feature views of Lady Bird Lake, the downtown skyline, the State Capitol and the West Hills. The high-rise tower is scheduled to open by August 2014, with pre-leasing expected to begin in the summer of 2014.

http://www.rebusinessonline.com/main...5&region=Texas