Then don't compare. Just use NYC as a case study on how to do it right. When the first subway line was installed over 100 years ago the tallest building was comparable to Austin's now. Then everything grew. Hopefully Austin will take this point in time and make it the beginning of a great new direction for the city. And four blocks is not far to walk for a subway stop... anywhere.

:previous:
LOL that is so true...

Speaking of that, Ive noticed several Austin forumers that comment on the SA threads yet you don't see any SA forumers doing the same for our threads not even in casual. Just an observation ive noticed.

i've noticed that too. there are a few who comment from houston... but the same can't be said about san antonio or dallas. i think i've commented on every texas thread... even corpus! lol

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...tain-more.html

Eleven apartments Austin

http://www.forestargroup.com/Assets/...ering-huge.jpg

http://www.forestargroup.com/real-es...roperty/id=592

Here a few pics from this Friday evening (6/1)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...7/DSC00318.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K...1/DSC_0445.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-R...0/DSC_0490.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-S...0/DSC_0480.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-r...0/DSC_0494.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...C_0512-001.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/DSC_0520.JPG

Didn't see this posted yet, new rendering of the Seaholm Project.
http://www.seaholm.info/graphics/seaholmoverview.png

Link

Great pics, Mopacs. And man, that's a nice design for Seaholm. I haven't seen that design.

If you go to their website, they have more renderings of it from different angles:

http://seaholm.info/html/renderings.html

I don't know what the name is, but it's a 15-story tower. Their website had it listed as 175 feet tall.

Check this thread in the Texas section. There's a rendering.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=192430

Oh, I need to get that added to the list in the OP then! Shame on me! :P

Thanks for posting it. =)

Times are good when measly little 15 story buildings get overlooked.

Lol, no kidding HC. OP updated. =)

Our list of under construction is looking good. Going to have to take off the courthouse soon, and move the JW hotel from "Aproved" to "Under Construction" soon.

I was drooling over haux's photos from The Austonian, and also checking out some construction. Anyway, it looks like there's some construction going on here on Riverside. Click on the image to get to the largest version of the photo, and look near the center of the photo. It looks like there's a large construction site there. Wasn't that the site of the Grayco Lakeshore project? It was a big project with multiple buildings. The two tallest ones were supposed to be 12 floors tall and about 130 feet. About the same height as the tallest building in the Riverview Apartments, also under construction on Riverside.

Click this link for the larger image.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1056593...n/photostream/

I just looked around a bit, and from what I could find that is something they made a couple PUDs for. That one is planned to be a couple hounded million dollar development with like 1,200 apartments and 3 buildings 90 feet tall.

But all that I found was from like 2009. I couldn't really find anything new about it, but I do remember reading something in the paper about it last fall. I just can't find it, nor remember what I had read. =(

Well, I sent out about a dozen emails this evening for building heights, so we'll see what we get.

Sweet!

Definitely construction on a large scale going on along Riverside in fact a small crane is up, large ammount of land has been cleard. Looks like one of the strip malls will be torn down as well. Im assuming there are updated renderings somewhere.

Also was driving around West Campus earlier today, can't remember what street I was on but there is a site that has a massive digout for what im guessing will be an underground garage. Its deep, I was shocked at the shear size of it. No signs and as far as I know I have not seen or heard of it but you dont usually see a huge ground dig out unless a fairly good size tower is going up. I do remember it was not far from MLK. There is a lot of stuff going on in West Campus, a lot of properties have been cleard out and construction everywhere.

That is great! There is a lot of activity in this area. The 15-story building is sperate from the U/C building at22 1/2 and Rio Grande. The site plan shows that the 15-story building is at 22 & Nueces, about a block south and a block east of the other site.

Ok, well then it must be some other project then. 2400 Nueces is at West 24th & Nueces. Callaway House is at 505 West 22nd, so it's at West 22nd between Nueces & San Antonio. And then this 15-story "West Campus Tower" is at West 22nd between Nueces & San Antonio.

So I wonder what project that is at West 22nd 1/2 & Rio Grande.

West Campus is crazy. I need to get up there and sort it out. I was also trying to email the people at Callaway House to get the building height, but they don't have an email address on their site, and neither does the architect. I guess I'll just have to call them.

The station is more like 1/2 a mile away; far too far away to consider this a TOD (remember what the "O" in TOD stands for - it's not OH MY GOD I ENJOY A 15 MINUTE WALK TO THE TRAIN STATION OVER A 30 SECOND TRIP TO MY CAR IN THE FREE PARKING LOT).

Another way of saying exactly what I did.

I notice while driving on the upper deck of IH 35 that they have restarted University Park (East Avenue) dirt was turning where the proposed hotel Andez is and saw about 12 construction workers, so it looks like things maybe coming together for UP.

Oh, WOW! Kevin I just noticed you added a "Austin's Tallest" list right below the original post. It is beautiful. Amazing! Thank you.

Thanks. I'm still working on it. I may even change it still.

I saw that too, its about time dirt is moving over there again.

I really hope it turns out looking like this.

http://upaustin.com/images/photo-gal...street_950.jpg
http://upaustin.com/


I'll stop by the site sometime this week or next to take some pictures.

I would like to add that to the list, but honestly not sure what to add.

Ok cool yea that will be nice.

I like it! Hopefully it does end up looking like that.

The city OK'ed the new uses for the Seaholm site and construction should start this summer.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte....html#comments

Check out the comments to the article before the Statesman cuts them off. The anti-everything NIMBY trolls are out in full force busy typing their comments.

Midtown Commons
 

They have started to turn dirt up at the Midtown Commons again in the Single Family area that was on the original site plan for that development. This is at Lamar Blvd and just north of Airport Blvd.

FYI
There are 3 visual cranes up in the West Campus area, two are the 15 & 17 or so tall towers of apartments/dorm style living. The third one I have not looked up to see what it is. Also on of the short stack 4-5 story buildings is almost complete around 23-25th streets just west of Guad.

Thirdly, The Gatti's Pizza on MLK and San Antonio is closed, and the lady at Wendy's across the street told me today it will close on Friday. Does anyone know of development for these lots or did they just close due to lack of sales as the lady at Wendy's told me?

I believe the building on the right was (or is) the planned 17-story Andaz Hotel (of the Hyatt brand name). Although, I only count 15 floors in that rendering. I don't know if plans have changed, but it was going to be a hotel. The building on the left is already there. It's the University Park office building that backs up to I-35. I got the height for that building after it was completed. It's 128 feet tall. I would guess the hotel tower is now around 170 feet tall or so.

This page shows the original rendering for it.
http://www.pspaec.com/index.php/hous...st-avenue.html

Thanks for the help. I was trying to track down what buildings were being built. There were two confirmed highrises (the ones you mentioned) under construction, plus two more that are a little more mysterious. I sent an email to one company who had renderings showing a 15-story tower on their website. They emailed me back yesterday and said they had no such building under construction in Austin.

I wrote this, this morning to add to the list. It is approved, and I found the height on emporis. But I didn't add it because I am not sure if it is still alive. Do you think I should add it? Or what changes I should make to it before adding it? I've very unfamiliar with the UC plans.

1. East Avenue Andaz Hotel 182 17 ------- UT -----
   
   
   
   
   
   http://qxczpq.bay.livefilestore.com/...ustinAndaz.jpg
   

Edit: obvously I would need to fix the spacing and look and all that before adding it. lol. But for info would I need to change anything you think? I was going to add it to the "Approved Buildings" part of the list.

Could what y'all are talking about be the Quarters at Bandera House?

Oh yeah, that 182 foot height for that hotel came from the American-Statesman articles that were talking about it a few years ago. I actually entered that height at Emporis back when I was an editor there.

It looks like they reduced the height and changed the design slightly. I would use the rendering that JoninATX posted above and the 15 floor count for the list. Not sure about the height. I would just leave it blank until a confirmed height is found.

And I don't know about the West Campus building. I'll send them another email with the rendering they had on their page.

Here's everything that Simmons Vedder has planned. Scroll down to the last page for student housing.

http://www.simmonsvedder.com/images/...iew_71009b.pdf

The projects are:
ACC Co-Op 505 W 22nd ST
SP-2011-0117C.SH
Floors 7-15 Dorm
Floors 16-17 Apartment

2400 Nueces St (Smart Housting)
SP-2010-0258C.SH
17 Floors 180' by plan elevation

did you read the comment about how austin is going to turn like phoenix az? haha so silly.

Wow really? If anybody seriously thinks Austin is going to be like Pheonix, then they need their eyes and brain checked out.

Austin Fairmont listed on hotels' site.
 

I have not read yet that The Fairmont Austin is listed on the hotels' web site...but it is:

http://www.fairmont.com/development/

From the site:
" The Fairmont Austin (2014+)
The Fairmont Austin will be located directly east of the Austin Convention Center, at the northeast corner of Cesar Chavez and Red River Streets. This 50-story hotel, which features over 70,000 square feet of function space, will rise approximately 580 feet, making it the second largest structure on downtown Austin’s skyline. "

It is the last on the list of the "Newest Fairmont Hotels & Resorts." Scroll to the bottom of the list. Fairmont Hotels would not be listing The Fairmont Austin if it had any doubt that it was going to be built. I feel like this building is a sure bet!

Not only that, but did you see the company that Austin was in on that page? Dubai? Baku? Jakarta? Amman? These are all major major up and coming cities.

I'm sorry to do this to our Phoenix skyscraper brethren, but Phoenix wishes they could have a vibrant downtown like we do. And if that person was talking about the housing crisis in Phoenix, fine, but the cause of Phoenix's housing crisis was suburban development which is most definitely not what is happening in downtown Austin.

The opposition to the deal cut by the City Council has NOTHING to do with NIMBYism. I fully support the Seaholm redevelopment and the construction of the new tower. However, the fact that the power plant is being turned over to a private company with the bare minimum of public use is extremely disappointing. The interior of Seaholm is spectacular - a one-of-a-kind asset. Now, all the public will get to do is peek at it while eating lunch. This is very disappointing.

I don't know about the Wendy's, but a friend of mine who lives at 18th & San Antonio said Gatti's Pizza is being replaced by a Chick-fil-A.

Agree 100 percent. I always thought it could be an incredible location for a farmers market open every day...something like Pike's Market in Austin.

On a separate note: I'm sorry but I am going to have to rant here...Can we please on this forum stop throwing around this word "NIMBY?" I feel most of the time you guys don't even realize what this word means...:hell:

Here is something to blow your mind...every time you guys cry out against a suburban development project, you are exercising your right to be a NIMBY. "How dare you" you say? Think about it...you are commenting on a project that is away from you because you have a vested interest in the community and city you live in. We all care about Austin and we want to be developed in a way that fits our view of the ideal city. This is what NIMBY is...its my backyard so I have a say in what goes in it. Sometimes there are people that don't share our opinion. That's life and it happens. Everyone of us has been a NIMBY at one point in your life unless you are for every single project that ever has been, which is certainly not the case because we all come on here and are interested in projects and how they develop. Guess what guys...when everyone hated the old Marriot design...we were being NIMBYs! Not like the design of the Hyatt or the new apartment on Brazos...same thing. This entire forum is a giant YIMBY and NIMBY outlet, and yet we hurl that phrase so divisively. Can we just please try and stop labeling people with such derogatory terms the eliminate any possibility of debate. And if we are going to use negative terms, at least use the right ones that don't insult your own actions. Thank you. Rant over.

The problem is almost nobody ever goes and protests a new suburban development on the edge of town. Often times these new suburban developments are in uninhabited land where are are no neighbors. It's always these great infill developments in the middle of town which draw the ire of the crazy NIMBY people who have no sense of urban planning.

I agree NIMBYism does exist and it is more prevalent in the center of town. However, it has nothing to do with the disappointment in the Seaholm decision. Anyone with a "sense of urban planning" should be discouraged that this unique public resource has been turned over to private interests. And probably at a discounted rate.

I agree we are all NIMBY's is some way. I live downtown in a hight rise and you better believe I'm picky as shit about what is getting built around me. Yes, I am going to protect my property value. ANY home owner would!

well, i agree... no doubt we're nimby's too. the difference is that there are those nimby's that are about "anti" everything... and they live up to the name much better than we urban enthusiasts. and those people are annoying. anyways, i'm sure we all understand that.

I'm not a NIMBY. Not of/for Austin, anyway. I used to live in Austin and vow to return. Thus, I like to see what's going on in the best city I've ever lived in. Obviously I have opinions, and I want the city to continue to thrive and become more dense. I want Austin to be a place that I always am attracted to.

Besides, I don't even think Orlando has a thread on skyscraperpages, so this is where I hang out and participate. :)