Lol! Amazing project. Looks like something you'd see in Toronto. Can't wait to see more!

I massively hope this actually happens, but lord knows they pulled the bait and switch with the other site so can we trust them now?

The tallest would be at least 800 feet. The second tallest is probably around the same roof height as the soon-to-be Fairmont across the street, whereas the shortest reminds me of square-ish London City Hall.

As I said in the other threads:

This project's scale relative to literally every other building in Austin is just beyond massive. I'm fine with height, and I'm fine with bulky, but when you combine the two you simply overwhelm everything else in the skyline. It's taller and substantially thicker than the Austonian. I'm not sure what I think about it, but I do know that I'd love the design in Houston or Dallas. In Austin, though, I'm a bit scared.

I had just figured this out right before you posted and was about to comment again...

Maybe we should take them seriously then, as this firm had a hand in all of the following:

W Hotel and Residences
Four Seasons Residences
Gables Park Plaza
Cirrus Logic

The rendering and design are not by them, but they have it on their own website. If you click there, you'll notice they're only doing:

In other words, the design is already done by someone else and they're moving it along in practice for all intents and purposes. We may actually be able to take this project seriously.

Waller Center = Ridonkulous everlasting skyscraper boners

Just stating facts..

It reminds me of what a cross between the Austonian and Minneapolis's Capella Tower might look like (though probably even taller than the latter).

Maybe we could call it the A-Capella tower? LOL.

The father also has a brother, he lives in Chicago. ;)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3004/2...6673ae9e_b.jpg
flickr - martiger

Re Waller:

dear god, I've been good... please let these towers get built.... Amen and stuff

And you know the tops of those buildings will light up at night!!!! oh loooord

I can see how the sheer volume of this Waller Project should belong in Houston or Dallas but hey... isn't that what skyscraper enthusiasts want for Austin? A bigger skyline? The difference between this project and any skyscraper in Htown or BigD is that this project is actually beautiful and striking. I agree with someone who said that it reminds me of that one tower in Vancouver. If this would get built it would put this very close to the Fairmont so its not as if its gonna be standing out alone. Plus there are already towers being built on Rainey. Austin's skyline would look wide and tall. Hello, Minneapolis.

I wonder what the city is going to do about the I-35/CC exit, if this and the Fairmont are both built. The off-ramp from from southbound I-35 to CC is absurdly short, then you have another very short patch of road to get over 2 lanes to turn right on CC. Already, when there's a big event at the convention center, that exit turns into a nightmare. With these new building I can only imagine it will be like that much more often.

I don't think the building will be too big. With the Austonian, and the Fairmont right next door, it will probably seem more in balance. And, if not, hell, it wouldn't be any different than what we have now, with the Austonian towering above everything else.

This will be moot if they ever bury that stretch of 35. If not, we might be better served getting rid of that exit altogether or moving it further back, if possible.

For the sake of comparison guys.

Old rendering:
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/l...oup_050213.jpg
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/l...oup_050213.jpg

New rendering:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...allercreek.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...allercreek.jpg

No offense to anyone here but I actually did like the old renderings more. It had a more foreign look for Austin, whereas the new renderings portray a striking similarity with the Austonian.

Also I don't consider this project development news but it still is some form of development nonetheless. Bergstrom will be adding service with British Airways next year.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...to-london.html

Excellent, now more foreign flag carriers. More I say! And expanding the airport would be cool, it's inevitable, Austin's becoming too much of a tourism hub and big city for them to not do it in the next 20 years.

It would be cool if they would incorporate the design of the base of the tallest tower into the vertical parts of each structure. Something like Aqua in Chicago.

yup... it's my fav part!!!!!

I'm a houstonian and that's my favorite city, but Austin is barely trailing in second place (I was born there), and I'm seriously excited for British Airways to London! (Let's hope they don't steal Houston's traffic, jk!) Congrats to Austin!

Man you guy's have some crazy development going on right now. Must be exciting! Has there been a steady pace of projects like this going over the years, or is it just recently that Austin is seeing this type of boom?

Once all of these projects are completed, I would easily give Austin the nod over Charlotte in the skyline department. (IMO)

Pretty impressive stuff! I envy Austin right now...:cheers:

Aqua is nice, but it's already been done. And now there are other towers in other cities copying it. I'd rather they not do that. Houston is getting one and I've seen a few others also. I'd rather they go their own route.

Agreed Kevin, I think Miami has one or its on contruction.

Miyrdi, Austin has been having this boom for at least 5 years and never-ending. I am looking forward to seeing more development in Austin.

We have basically seen a steady pace with major projects and in fact some of the projects under construction now or are about to start were announced around the time the recession hit. Austin is no stranger to building booms but as others have stated on here this looks to be the largest building boom to date because its not just Downtown, but the entire central core.

I am really liking Waller Center. I think it is a good thing that there is a bit of a nod to the Austonian because it will enhance the now iconic skyline with more Austin style iconic towers. The first rendering was never intinded to be the final design and was too simple and bland IMO. The new rendering really broadens the concept in a beautiful design.

As for the new non stop service to London, I'm already making plans for a trip next year! Expect more international investors to come to the city. I also would not be surprised at all if more major towers are announced in the coming year. We are witnessing Austin's international rise and it is rising quite rapidly.

Can somebody take charge and update the first page? I don't think we need a separate proposed and approved section. One for under construction and one for proposed seems like a better option for keeping it up to date.

Agreed, a lot of projects were put on hold during the recession though we still had many towers built during that period. Now, there is all this pent up demand that is exploding. On the tower design, you are correct. That was a preliminary render if I ever saw one and was meant to give an idea of the design and massing. The new one isn't different, just a detailed render.

Agreed, it's really complicated trying to do it. This isn't BevoLJ's fault, by the way, it's just that the coding to do all of that is very tedious and does take a while. Here's a look at what it takes for just the Austin Skyhouse's listing. Times this by the number of all the projects.

[*][pre][URL="http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=199731" ]Austin Skyhouse[/URL ] Apartment 264' 23 ------- Downtown Rainey Street District[/pre ]
[spoiler][IMG]http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/archive/01495/SkyhouseRainey_1495468a.jpg[/IMG ]
[IMG]http://downtownaustinblog.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/austinskyhouse.jpg-600x348.jpg[/IMG ][/spoiler ]

If anyone else is interested in volunteering to help out with it, send me a message. For anyone who is interested, I would have to edit your profile so that you'd be a para-moderator, which would mean you'd be able to edit posts.

That base (plinth?) is amazing. It seems to have echo's of the new central library. I really like the design of the towers. I like that they sort of give a nod to the Austonian. Will that tallest tower really be over 800 feet? What is that, 70+ floors?

65 floors. Austonian is 680 feet, and this is clearly taller than that by a good amount.

Using the Austonian as a template, the 65 story tower would be ~790 feet tall.

That's good enough for me. That would make three towers in the ~700' range.

Having three towers in that height range (as long as they are fairly close together) give a skyline a nice symmetry as other towers seem to cascade away from the peaks. I think that makes for a much prettier skyline than a huge mass of towers that cover each other up. The skylines of Pittsburgh and Minneapolis have this kind of symmetry depending on the viewing angle. Those are two of my favorite U.S. skylines.

"Austin style iconic towers," is an interesting phrase. Please expound on this statement. I am sure the latest designs for the Green Water site are not "Austin Style" nor are they "Iconic Towers." The Waller Center towers are great looking and they are not twin towers as might be the case at Green. The Waller cascade of height is very sexy.

Minneapolis does have a great skyline. Part of the reason, in addition to your comment, is that all new buildings must relate to the other existing buildings nearby and they have a review process that looks at the exterior. This started after an especially bland (ugly) tower was built. I hope the City of Austin has a say in the Green development...since the site is/was city property. These Waller Center towers, however, relate very nicely to the rest of the Austin skyline buildings. If built they will enhance the skyline. I look forward to seeing how they meet the street and the pedestrian.

The whole of a skyline is essentially a very public expression of the city. A city is very commonly represented in the media and advertising with an image of its skyline. If the towers have logos and names blazing across the top then I think of corporate/private/profit/trophy. I think of Los Angeles. If the towers are radically different in color, massing or height then I feel a very discordant and unsettled feeling inside. I feel this when looking at the Pittsburgh skyline and especially the new part of Shanghai, across the river from the older city. When I see the whole of the Houston skyline (downtown is impressive); from downtown to the Galleria and farther west...I think sub-urban, gotta have a car.

Most of this frenzied development in Austin is amazingly copacetic. The exception for me is The W which meets the street in an awful way and is of an odd gray color. They still have not been able to rent some of the retail on the street. Probably because of how the building greets and meets the street. The latest for the Green is an ugly brown; 80's cheap looking thing.

Bravo to all the other proposed and under-construction project that have "Austin Style", maybe not "Iconic Towers", but relate to the existing skyline and are creating One Hell of an Impressive Skyline, and street life. :cheers: Thank You to those responsible for all the recently built towers that relate to the skyline in a pleasing manner...and meet the street in a friendly human way, thus increasing the pleasure of being in downtown Austin. :tup:

I know we dislike this project, but I don't remember seeing these posted here. They were posted by JoninATX with a credit to AusTexDevelopment on SkyScraperCity.

http://i.imgur.com/4xO0OTs.png

http://i.imgur.com/xlBwsTR.png

I know it's a huge wasted opportunity, but it's still a significant improvement over what's there now at the street level and that would be a pretty cool place to work.

Whatever, infill is infill. Cant ever have enough of them.

The street level looks great, Michael Hsu is fantastic local architect. . .I can live without the tower. Looking forward to having that block be activated by all that retail on ground floor. It gets a 9/10 in my book.

It seems to me like whoever hired Michael Hsu didn't take advantage of his ability. I love his work, and even if there is no height, I wish they would have allowed him to design something more interesting for that spot. sure it will be ok though

The street level retail in the rendering looks like typical modern European design.

Looks cool

Thats pretty progressive... for 1950. Yuck.

Wuthering heights: Waller Center building may not be Austin's tallest
 

Robert Grattan
Staff Writer- Austin Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...ay-not-be.html

The Waller Center development – a $500 million, three-building project that has long been thought to contain Austin's tallest building – won't be breaking any height records for the city, the head of the development company for the center said Thursday.

Noooooo!!!
Actually, I was a bit concerned that with the Waller Center and the Fairmont right next to each other the skyline was going to look pretty lop-sided from the South, even with Spring and the completed 311Bowie on the West side. Maybe a 550–600 foot/40–45 story structure would look good there.

I'm looking at between 600- 650 for the tallest building. Even if it doesn't break The Austonian height, it's still going to have a major impact on the skyline either way.

Well they just said it wont be Austin's tallest.

You guys should settle, they never mentioned which building will be the one surpassing it. It could be the Austonian, yes but it could also be the Fairmont too, which by all measures is meant to be quite a bit taller than the Austonian.

We should wait for more detail.

Fairmont will be shorter than the Austonian by ~100 feet. The building will be 10 feet taller if they decide to go with the spire for the design.

What? I thought the spire was a definite? Did they change the design? What does it look like now?

Yeah, we know.

Hsu? Good luck hearing yourself think in there.

I have *never* stepped foot in anything designed by that guy that wasn't horribly loud.

what are you talking about? I'm talking about the exterior of the project... If you think that exterior is loud then yikes

Where is everyone?
 

My calendar says it is the 9th of September...and no posts for two days! Are we all just burnt out by the news and announcements lately that we have just needed a breather? Or is my connection to the Forum stuck? :shrug::shrug:

Wait the last post is dated on the 6th....three days.

My posts are so good, people need several days to digest their brilliance....

So what projects will we see break ground in the next 1 to 3 months????

Fairmont is supposed to break ground in November.

I got caught in the rainstorm today in downtown. I hope it keeps raining like this, we need it bad.

I took this shot today after the rain was clearing up, I must say my photography skills are improving in certain aspects.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7363/9...ac4b9e1b_b.jpg