Wow, that's a sharp looking building! I know it is kind of early, but what types of firms will be looking in to this building? Tech?

They should put a 700-foot spire on it and call it the tallest building in Austin.

[eidt] excuse the bitter comment. Like others, I was hoping for something a bit more substantial right there in the heart of down-town.

How would you position a more substantial (height-wise) project on that corner without impacting the south wall of the adjacent Bank of America Tower?

Rumor is a very prominent tech company is close to signing a lease for about 250,000 square feet - approximately half of the building's office space. The building is supposed to start construction this quarter and deliver by the end of 2016.

Here's an updated top 40 list of Austin's tallest under construction and proposed high rises. Much of Austin's booming construction activity is for residential mid-rises and not on the list.

Virtually all of the information was obtained from press releases, city permit searches, published articles and published renderings. I use Emporis high rise standards for including projects to the list.

There are several State, University of Texas and Travis County buildings where the status and height information is not easy to obtain and may not currently be as I have listed. I probably haven't even included all of them on this list. But all of these buildings are on the low end of the high rise scale. So I don't really care. :)

The top three on the list all have the potential to be Austin's new tallest. If they all get built as proposed Austin will have four towers in the ~650' to 700' range which will make for a nice skyline.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...pdatePage1.png
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...pdatePage2.png

Thanks for the insight!

That could be why the start date was moved up from after the first tower currently U/C was completed in 2016.

Hotel Zaza's site plan was released about three weeks ago, but I don't see any building permit activity, other than old demolition permits.

Last time you said the rumor was Google. Has that changed? Is it typical for a deal like this to take this long to come together? I believe you first mentioned this a while back (March or April, I think).

It's just a rumor.

Yes deerhoof, it's supposed to be Google. CBRE is representing Google in their search for 200,000 to 250,000 square feet of office space in Austin. They've been looking at options for over a year.


And yes, it's just a rumor. Google was once rumored to be looking a building a building or two in the Domain for their Austin HQ, and also was rumored as one of the main tenants for Colorado Tower. All of those options fell through. This may not happen either, however Trammell Crow did move up the construction of a 500,000 square foot building with no preleasing in place (that we know of), so something is in the works. Either that or they are afraid they're going to miss the up-cycle if they wait too long.

Seven from this morning.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3869/...c9debfc2_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3894/...8a8fd92c_b.jpg

Colorado Tower

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3837/...e5ee2212_b.jpg

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...-downtown.html

Ironically, news was released just now that Google will lease space downtown at the old Children's Museum.

Yes - 22,000 square feet. They also signed a 2-year lease for 50,000 square feet a couple of months ago at University Park, the sad, empty office building over by UT that Andy Sarwal went to jail for. Both are expansion spaces. They are growing so fast and they are running out of room at their main office in North Austin. They want to have a headquarters downtown where everyone can be in one building. Its taking them a really long time to figure that out, though.

Such a history this corner has. I've always consdiered this a placeholder until a larger development happens. A slipcover.

Don't get folks on here started about the man who was behind the failed development of this property (he who shall not be named: Tom Stacy ).

Back in 2006 this was the proposal, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli.
At that time it included a revamp of the the building next door ( same owner) and a set back tower that would not block the tower to the north.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/7...ongress5wn.jpg

image from urban planet

Google could still end up moving into Green Water (or some other new office tower). It sounds like they are just signing short term leases at various locations to warehouse employees until the right project comes along for a long term lease.

Facebook is also apparently growing their operations in Austin fairly quickly. Does anyone know if they are in need of space or if their current home at 300 W. 6th is big enough?

Unlike Google, Facebook is not 'actively' in the commercial real estate market looking for space at the moment. However, that doesn't mean they aren't looking - just means they're not being public about it. Developers are having lots of off-market (aka confidential) discussions with growing companies that could be prospective tenants right now. They are chasing deals so they can get some preleasing, commitments or at least show that there is interest in order to secure financing. It's a hot market out there. :)

Does anyone have an idea of where the final footprint of the tallest part of the ECC building will be?

Aren't they combining two towers to do a large one? I'd like to figure out what views will be blocked from certain angles.

We are a ways off from getting any specific info on this project.

I figured but I'm curious where such a building might be positioned (will it terrace away from the lake, etc). Don't worry, I don't count on it until construction clears the 20h floor.

Btw am I the only person that thinks Colorado tower ended up looking shorter than expected? Probably once the glass fills in up top it won't look that way

You're not alone. I made that same comment a while back in the thread for that building.

The Colorado Tower looks better seen from far away as far as height goes. I took some pics yesterday from the South Austin Hospital garage, and it looked slightly taller than One Congress Plaza even though the two are the same height (397 feet). I assumed it was because the Colorado Tower sits on slightly higher ground than One Congress Plaza does being that it's 2 blocks farther north.

My guess is with the Austin ECC tower is they'll place the tower on the west side of the block. Whatever happens at the "courthouse block" caddy corner to it will likely be along 3rd Street. If the ECC tower were more central on the block or on the east side of it, that would mean three large towers would be across from each other.

Austin's (Potential) Future Skyline
 

Here are some updated images from different perspectives of Austin's (Potential) Future Skyline. I included ECC as an 800' building on the western half of the lot.

http://i.imgur.com/5pnOLSU.jpg

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

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

http://i.imgur.com/1UlRg1t.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/X8jUKKt.jpg

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

I really hope y'all enjoy these as much as I do making them! :P

Please leave comments/suggestions! :tup:

Looks great! It's funny how the growth of the skyline as seen from the north is almost unnoticeable and insignificant.

We often don't realze how "downhill" the river is from UT!

We can always count on Chiveman! These are fantastic!

Chiveman, can you post some from Mopac, Mabry West Austin?

I notice it on my bike. ;) Especially on West Avenue whenever I'm headed north into say West Campus. There are blocks in West Campus that sit 170 feet higher than the level of the river. Even the Capitol sits 110 feet higher than the river. You could have a 170 foot tall building along Cesar Chavez facing the river and still have your eye level be higher in elevation as you were standing in West Campus. The area where the Triangle is is about 220 feet higher than the river level. So those state owned highrises at 51st Street have an eye level elevation of a 350 foot tall building in the lower part of downtown.

It would be cool to see the view from Saint Edward's University, too.

Wooooo I love the skyline is growing!

http://img2.tvtome.com/i/u/670673ff8...3731d48366.gif

They should just build a signature tower :D

There's another company making rounds for more space and that is Amazon. From what I've heard, could be substantial too.

Nice work, Chiveman. Can you please explain the color coding? Thanks.

I will try to have those other views up tonight. I had to make a trip to SA today.

I'm going to be perfectly honest and say that there is no significant reason for the different colors. :uhh:

But that is something I will consider from now on. How do y'all think I should color code, height? Or by another factor?

Commercial, residential, mixed use commercial / residential.

Under construction / Approved / Proposed

http://i.imgur.com/2MdiqDz.jpg

Here is the view from St. Ed's. :tup:

Blue= Office
Black= Residential
Grey= Hotel
Red= Mixed-use
Green= Library

http://i.imgur.com/ktgoE0g.jpg

Here is the view from Camp Mabry with the same color coding as above. :tup:

I'm still working on the color coding for this. I hope to have it done sometime tomorrow.

As always, please leave comments/suggestions for future images! :cheers:

Looks great. The view from Saint Ed's is going to be pretty impressive.

Thanks, Chiveman. So does this mean all these buildings are or will be under construction? I don't care what kinds of buildings they are, as long as they'll be actual buildings and that's what the skyline will look like... that's what I care about.

[QUOTE=KevinFromTexas;6693813]I notice it on my bike. ;) Especially on West Avenue whenever I'm headed north into say West Campus. There are blocks in West Campus that sit 170 feet higher than the level of the river. Even the Capitol sits 110 feet higher than the river. You could have a 170 foot tall building along Cesar Chavez facing the river and still have your eye level be higher in elevation as you were standing in West Campus. The area where the Triangle is is about 220 feet higher than the river level. So those state owned highrises at 51st Street have an eye level elevation of a 350 foot tall building in the lower part of downtown.

YES ! eaxctly!
YES ! eaxctly! When we ride to hike and bike trail, coming home is always a bitch in summer.... uphill, end of ride... !
So where did you find those elevations, I would love to see how Cambridge relates to that.!

You can measure sea level elevations with Google Earth. Just pass your cursor over each block. At the bottom right of the screen it'll show you the elevation. There's also a "3D Buildings" check box to the left that lets you to measure building heights. You have to subtract the 3D building elevation from the sea level elevation to get the number.

According to Google Earth, the footprint of the Cambridge Tower is between 572 and 576 feet above sea level. The river elevation is 429 feet above sea level. So the footprint of the Cambridge Tower is between 143 and 147 feet higher than the river is. The Cambridge Tower itself is 181 feet to the mechanical penthouse. So the roof of the building is 324 to 328 feet higher than the river level. That's slightly more than the height of The Monarch.

You can use this too.

http://veloroutes.org/elevation/

OH! cool! Thank you !

Even my neighborhood is a little over 200 feet higher than downtown is. It's pretty much all downhill for me along South Congress, but the ride back is all uphill.

Just before sunset 08/2014
 

Soil testing going on at the parking across from AMLI on 2nd

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5579/...5964f9b6_b.jpg

Remind me, what's going here?

That's the courthouse block, but we haven't heard anything about this moving forward. Voters haven't even voted on the bond package yet. There is a supposed private development that will accompany the courthouse, but again, we haven't heard anything about it moving forward.

Oh, is that the courthouse lot?

Edit: Dang, Kev, you're quick!

Awesome... I think a soil sample might indicate a design has already taken shape, or certainly is about to take shape. A soil sample like this probably means a foundation is being designed in order to attempt to support some type of structure. Can't wait to see what is being dreamed up.

also let me save them some time... it's sand sand sand... sandy loam.... water table.... sandy loam... sand and sand

19 floors would be pushing 300 feet.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/p...-grows-/ng6Lm/