impressive project. Proposal will have to be tweaked. Need hotel capacity for that part of town... that alone would spur competition from future projects. That part of town along MLK blvd has been underwhelming for years.

You know, that thing's probably going to be hanging in dorm rooms from now on. LOL

Done. I heard about this on KVUE the other day and saw the rendering. I thought they said 70-story or 17-story tower. I'm happy with a 47 story tower for sure. This would be the tallest building in Austin north of the Capitol.

Here's the link.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=1#post5715698

Glad you got the height for it, too. That is awesome. Technically, it will still be shorter than the Austonian by just 28 feet, but the roof of it will be higher than Austonian's main roof. And because of the higher elevation, this thing really will stick up. But still, officially it'll be listed as 655 feet since that's the height over the street level.

Meh. This tower wouldn't block the view from I-35. And I doubt it'll block many other views. And besides, there are plenty of state office building ugos blocking the Capitol's view anyway.

I think that tower will look even better by itself ala the Williams tower in Houston. Plus I really like the way it looks, and the fact that it will stand out is a big plus.

I like it, somehow I get the impression when i look at the new Planetarium I think of the OCP headquarters off Robocop.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...0720170148.jpg

http://manabouttinseltown.blogspot.c...d-detroit.html

Dallas City Hall

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/t...yhall/pei.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/t...gledistant.jpg

I just had a random thought that I'd like to share. To all those who say being a native in Austin gives the right to be a NIMBY and that being born here somehow give them the right to feel proud. Well, if anything, those of us that CHOSE to move here made a conscious decision to move here knowing how it was. Believe me, I did not want to be born where I was. I was not urging my mom in her womb to be born in Wichita, lol. I would have loved being born here, it would have been so much more fun. Heading downtown at the age of 18 and actually have places to go into,,,,well, as for now I CHOOSE to stay here!!!

Exactly. The arrogance of people who feel their opinions are worth more because they are native Austinites is beyond ridiculous. At some point in time a developer built their homes and places of work on pristine Hill Country land.

Apartments, hotel, entertainment complex planned near Domain

The Addison on Burnet
http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/...z_1484691c.jpg

http://www.statesman.com/business/ap...n-2381541.html

[

257 apartment units to be built at East 11th and I-35

http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/...s_1484693c.jpg

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...t-2381603.html

So that makes about 20-25 mixed use apartment complexes planned or under construction right now in central Austin alone meaning at least 5000 new units in the market alone within the next five years. This is actually a good thing as it will stave off further price increases keeping Austin cheap to live in, which in turn keeps population growth steady.

Agreed.

Luxury brand Fairmont to operate 2nd downtown convention hotel
 

By Shonda Novak
American-Statesman


Luxury management company Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will be the operator for a $350 million convention hotel planned for downtown, making Austin only the second Texas city to feature the famed brand, the company told the American-Statesman on Tuesday.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...n-2382129.html

Whoa. That's a rendering I haven't seen before. Very cool!

http://i.imgur.com/LD5NW.jpg

Nice!
 

I sure hope this thing goes forward. It looks really nice, imo. I love this tall, slender type of building a lot and it looks fantastic. After having read the article, I sure hope the financing in fact gets secured, and hopefully having an operator for the hotel is the last hurdle.

I attended the Austin comic convention in November '11 and stayed at the Radisson only a couple of blocks away. The room was nice, I had a great view of downtown and the capitol, and I liked that they had a Starbucks and a TGI Fridays, but the architecture of the hotel itself was really generic and ugly, quite frankly. I'm happy to see this new Fairmont if it happens, and the JW Marriott. Both look like they'll make an extremely positive impact on the convention center business and the downtown skyline.

In fact, having looked at the original Marriott design, I wanted to slap whoever approved that monstrosity. Like a lot of people, I'd rather nothing be built than something that looked like that! Then they redid the design and it looked a lot better, but still left a lot to be desired.

I'm still ecstatic over White Lodging deciding to go with the JW brand. The way the design looks now isn't perfect, but it's still pretty darn cool and Austin dodged a huge bullet.

If both of these go up, it'll be a fantastic step for the city.

Core samples being drilled at the Fifth and Bowie site. !

***flips hair back bats lashes**** gurl, really????

If they are continuing to maintain their 2015 opening date, they need to get moving on construction. I want to see another crane over there! =)

OMG lol...

By the way the skybridge was changed now its not closed in but will be open to the outside. I think that is a nice touch and will incorporate the skybridge with the surrounding area.

Would love to see both the Bowie site as well as 7th and Rio start construction soon.

Yup! :banana:

I noticed that. A good compromise. Keep folks covered for weather yet connects better to street. Done. ( plus less wasted air conditioning! )

Holy hell, man. I love my city. :)

Agreed...

By the way Kevin, when will you be back on a regular basis? Hope soon.

Saw the Fairmont on KVUE..
Really hope this gets built!
The 2nd skyline boom is imminent!
:)

The skybridge on the original rendering also had an open component. It had two levels with and open and closed section. I think the big change here is they are trying to make the bridge less intrusive to the area by eliminating the upper section.

In fact, this rendering has been available for a while on the Gensler site. This link was posted earlier, but I will post it again below in case anyone here hasn't seen it yet. Rendering #4 is the one from the Statesmam article and #5 gives you a great sense of what walking across the bridge will be like. I think it will be an outstanding component of the project. Renderings #1 and #2 are from the Green Development. We will see how those turn out.

http://www.gensler.com/#aboutus/offices/32

WHOA...I had no idea there were better renders of green.
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...texs/GREEN.jpg
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...exs/GREEN2.jpg
Is Gensler still doing this???

Skybridge
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...ntexs/SKYB.jpg
:D:D

:previous: That's not part of Green.

hmm strange... now how do they know that ben affleck and jennifer garner will one day in the future be spotted walking their kids in downtown austin?

hahahahahahahaha


@HillCountry, the first two are part of green...the skybridge WITH celebrities is Fairmont.

My bad. I'm a little confused though. (I'm confused about a lot of things, but I'll stay on topic here.) The entire SW DT Austin area is being re-developed by different developers and includes at least the adjacent Seaholm/Gables/Austin Energy Control Center?/Demolished Green Water Treatment Facility. What exactly are we referring to when we say the Seaholm development vs. the Green development. At one point the Austin Energy site was part of Green, but isn't that being developed by a different developer than Trammel Crow who is developing the Green site?

@BevoLJ Kudos to you for doing such an excellent job of keeping up with the latest developments and construction photos on page 1.:cheers:

The Seaholm development is outlined in red. The Green Water Treatment Plant development is outlined in pink.

http://i.imgur.com/E2xxJ.png

I haven't heard anything about the Austin Energy site. I think they have to transfer the operations elsewhere first. It's always been more of a long-term deal, I think.

The simple answer. Seaholm is west of the Creek. That was the old Electric plant. Green is East of the creek. That was the "Green Water Treatment" plant. Austin Energy control site is still occupied, west of the creek, north of Seaholm. While it was included in some of the speculative designs, it is not not.

How that for clean!

The control center site is still happening. It was part of the Green sale, but the negotiations were completed first. They are waiting for the new facility to be finished for the operation to move out. I think it will be sometime next year.

What control center?

The ECC was part of the Green sale? I thought that was separate and part of the 2008 deal was that the ECC couldn't be sold prior to April 2013? The Green couldn't be sold prior to April 2012 which is why it was voted on (and pushed back) last April.

At least that is how I remember it being, but very well could be confused.

The Electric Control Center. It is the site catty corner of the creek from the Music Hall. Accross that old bridge, north of 3rd, east of West (lol) and has that bend of the creek that make the north and east side of the lot.

Here's a more extensive version:

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...GoogleMaps.png

Red is the Green redevelopment.
Purple is the Seaholm redevelopment.
Orange is the Energy Control Center redevelopment.
Green is the Austin Library development.
Black is the Travis County Courthouse development.
Blue is the mixed use development currently under construction.

Ok I remember now, om out Downtown at the clubs drunk right now my bad lol.

2900 Manor Road

http://www.bigreddog.com/wordpress/w...Untitled-1.jpg

http://www.bigreddog.com/wordpress/w...Untitled-2.jpg

http://www.bigreddog.com/preview-of-...-austin-texas/

I LOVE the design. I have to say, though, that it is a bit far from the station to be considered a transit oriented development... Either way it is a positive densifying element.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...ogleMaps-1.png

b e a u t i f u l

In New York, aside from lower Manhattan, anything within 1/4 mile of a subway station is close.

Yes, well, remember that we're dealing with two completely separate mindsets vis-a-vis transit. New Yorkers' primary mode of transportation is mass transit, which necessarily - and out of necessity (pardon the wordplay there) - expands what you'd consider close. In practically every other American city the primary mode of transportation is car, which necessarily diminishes the pull of mass transit.

I.E. in order for a commute in mass transit to be reasonable in the mind of most Americans (and hence most Austinites) it (being the boarding platform or what have you) can't be much further away from where you parked your car. In this case, its way too far away.

I'm all for it w/ regard to density and proximity to downtown as it is energy efficient compared to a similar development in the suburbs, but marketing this as a transit oriented development is disingenuous.

Comparing Austin to New York City is probably not gonna fly. NYC is obviously a very unique city in America when it comes to density and transportation.

You might as well argue about whether a 37-story condo is tall, if you're using NYC as your comparison.

Austin is a very unique city too, but it seems more fit to compare it with Dallas or another TX city, or another city of relative size such as Cincinnati, Baltimore, or Charlotte.

Not trying to cause commotion. I just don't like a comparison of Austin vs NYC very much in general.

Ah! Thanks!

You may not want to compare Austin to Dallas on this forum.

:runaway:

Lol. Well I oftentimes hear people say they're afraid of Austin becoming "South Dallas". Really, there is not another city like Austin that I can think of, so finding somewhere to compare it to is hard. But when I hear something like that, it makes me think that people do in fact compare the cities in some way. For instance, you could compare decisions that had different outcomes when it comes to zoning or transportation that caused the two cities to go in different directions. Or using Dallas' history to show Austin the wrong way to do something.

I always thought Portland would be a good city to compare Austin to, but obviously they have a much tighter urban growth boundary and a more mature public transportation system, at least as far as rail is concerned.

I greatly apologize for using the D-word. :D

In the end, my point was the same. Comparing Austin to NYC is probably a bad idea.

I guess it depends on the topic being discussed as to what cities are appropriate comparisons. But one steadfast rule is never ever compare Austin and San Antonio (and vice versa) under any circumstance. :)

Lets count the ways... that Austin and San Antonio rivalries can be stirred up. 1) Listing Austin before San Antonio... Oops. Did I do that twice already?