I wonder why they didn't also include the Manchester in that video. I don't think that's a bad sign, but it is peculiar.

It's amazing how much of a void that the JW is going to fill.

Edit: it seems they've been playing favorites for awhile. In one of their previous videos, they did the same thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUr96EnNlg

It isn't just them. Seems pretty common around town that the JW gets more mention/notice than the Fairmont.

I don't think it is really anyone playing favorites or anything. Mostly just that White Lodging is very well established in Austin. They know everyone in town, and everyone is very familiar with them. Manchester not so much. Or at all.

Sure would be nice to get some nighttime renderings of the JW Marriott so we know what the lighting will look like.

I wonder if that SketchUp model of the JW is available online? Didn't see it in the warehouse.

More likely because the JW Marriott is actually being built and has its opening scheduled for March 2015. The Fairmont is merely being talked about as one day built.

I do admit that there are moments where the Fairmont seems to be a fantasy project. However, there are big backers behind the project AND didn't they just apply for a crane permit or do some other application that is necessary to move forward?

They filed the site plan last October and it's going through the review and update process. Reading through the two PDFs attached to the application, there are three different references to the number of stories: 49, 52 and 53. Underground parking may account for part of the discrepancy.

OMFG. The latest -- and 40th anniversary -- edition of Texas Monthly.

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

Funny how San Antonio still doesn't have many high rises in that fantasy picture.

To be truly accurate, the greatest area of population density is too far to the northwest. The "Texas Triangle" - the area that is bounded by I-35, I-45 and I-10 is farther east, and contains 18 million people, or slightly more than 75% of the state's population according to the 2011 estimates. I guess most people think DFW is the biggest urban center of the state, which it is, but it's funny that San Antonio and Houston were left out. Even Austin had some recognizable buildings in that bunch. And there shouldn't be anything between El Paso and Midland/Odessa. The least populated areas of the state are West and South Texas, some with counties with fewer than 100 people, even though a few of them cover more than 2,000 square miles.

I don't think the intention was to make it accurate, just to make Texas look like one big metropolis. Some of those buildings are real buildings, though. It's not possible that all of them are, is it? I don't see the Austonian.

Also, Big Bend National Park will not be paved over with high rises.

I'm sure the Nimbies gasped, though. They probably assumed Dallas means to annex the land between it and Austin and pave it with skyscrapers.

Dallas is evil.

Speaking of Dallas being evil, I recently came upon this interesting bit of history about how Dallas came to be.

Keep in mind, before this, Dallas was just another little Texas town.

From Wikipedia:

"In 1871, railroads were beginning to approach the area and Dallas city leaders did not intend to stand idly and be left out. They paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad US$5,000 to shift its route 20 miles (32 km) to the west and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through Corsicana as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay the Texas and Pacific Railway to locate there, so they devised a way to trick the Railroad—Dallas had a rider attached to a state law which required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder Springs—which turned out to be just south of Main Street. The major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas in 1873, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center."

As you can imagine, the population exploded at that point. One railroad passing through wouldn't have been enough to have this effect. It had to be two intersecting railroads. So Dallas's very existence as the biggest metropolis in Texas is the result of some shadiness, which seems fitting, in a way. If they hadn't done anything, the biggest metropolis in Texas would likely have been 20 miles to the east of Dallas and probably a bit to the north or south.

I do love me some Texas history. So, yeah, Dallas is evil. Still, I want the best for it. I want it to urbanize and densify, because it's a city in Texas and I think it's worth fixing.

Considering the stretch of I-35 between Dallas and Austin, if Dallas paved it over with skyscrapers it would be a huge improvement!

Walked by 3 Eleven Bowie this morning and saw there are two crane bases on site.

Yep. We just drove by there 30 minutes ago. I snapped a few pics that I'll post later. I got some of the Streetlights at Barton Springs site, too.

I thought it was Streetlights

Blah. It is. That was a typo.