Austin | 6G | 874 Feet | 65 Floors | Complete
 

I know it isn't the post office site proper, but 600 Guadalupe may be getting redeveloped soon. The link below takes you too a drone shoot done for a commercial client. The highest images come in at 773 feet.

http://panowings.com/folders/600guadalupe/

Construction cam link.
http://webcampub.multivista.com/inde...6-E3C4B0C3B2C1

That's the Extended Stay hotel. Sutton had it but now Lincoln Property Company controls that site. I don't know if they bought it or partnered on it, but they are planning an office building there. Those are some very specific heights - 419 feet and 773 feet. Developers usually get these panorama shots done to market the views to potential investors and/or tenants of their future buildings. Whether or not that is what this is, I have no idea.

That's very interesting. That would go along with what scraperwill said about 600 Guadalupe which is the motel site that had a CVC filing late last year.

This is from the CVC determination. Half of the block is good to go up!

http://i.imgur.com/ZeDlVo6.png
https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...rtyrsn=1126127

Two months after the 600 Guadalupe CVC determination request, a "development related" tree survey was done of the block. This is from the end of December and Sutton's name was still on the documents.

http://i.imgur.com/ynj1UGM.png
https://abc.austintexas.gov/attachme...7z0lzuJxrs7%2F

I love this site.

I love it more.

Are you guys talking about 600 Guadalupe or SSP? :)

I'm talking abut the panowings link a few posts above. I just spent about 20 minutes playing around on it.

The Panowing views at 773' are incredible. Based on the construction progress of the buildings in the views, the drone pano could be from this past week.

Ha! SSP, natch. Where else are you going to find such obscure but completely golden links? Plus, the advance intel on new stuff is just staggering. Regularly scooping the media by months.

So panowings is totally awesome, too.... interesting how dense we look at '419 (when the camera is still within the vicinity of the Austin Plateau) vs how dense '773 looks -- with nothing nearly that height, and all the surrounding parking lots and single story buildings exposed.

Exactly. Since this potential new tallest actually has some permit filings, it has some credibility. The drone shots and some reliable SSP insider info add some good corroborating evidence to this project as well.

With our water front starting to fill in a bit, it makes sense that we'd start getting some taller ones further north in downtown. That's pretty much how I've always assumed it would be. The river flowing through our downtown is fairly wide and the whole area around it creates parkland. It's not like in a few other cities with narrow rivers that flow through the heart of their downtowns where they're lined with buildings right up to the water's edge in places. I sort of like the idea of having the taller buildings be farther away from the river, not because of Nimby sentiments, but because I think it'll make the skyline appear more interesting. I don't know. I just think a 700 or 800 foot building or even 600 foot one so close to the water would look a bit strange. The Austonian is at least two blocks north of the river. Besides, I'd rather be able to see a couple of 400 footers stepping up to an 800 footer (more layers and more buildings) than one single building blocking the others. Once the water front is completely filled in, we'll be appreciating any taller buildings that happen farther north so their construction can be seen from the river and parkland to the south of downtown. There really aren't many good vantage points of the north side of downtown and the northwest side of downtown to watch those areas fill in much, so having something taller than can be seen from farther away I think will be appreciated.

These are some good thoughts and observations. I've often thought about that as well. I've gone back and forth on the step-down approach to the river, and I"m leaning more toward it for some of the same reasons you mentioned.

I also think that Lavaca and Guadalupe would be a pretty cool corridor for height going north, but it seems that there are quite a few CVCs between 7th and 14th streets...but there are a couple lots that could yield a pretty unique building due to said corridors, of course. The other thing is that these two streets travel all the way through downtown and then continue south via S 1st, so it would be good for more density anyway, even if not with significant height.

The fact that the CVCs sort of form a triangle split by the Congress CVC could bring some really cool effects with more and more height and density throughout. If the height was limited to the river, that would never be seen.


Edit: Another area with no real CVC limitations that seems to go under the radar is bordered by West, MLK, Lavaca, and 15th or so to the south. This area seems untapped to me...right by West Campus, UT, the Capitol area, and the downtown core to the south.

http://panowings.com/folders/600guadalupe/

This ROCKS!!!!:notacrook::worship:

It sure does. I love how you can see the effects of the capitol corridors taking shape, especially on the far west side of downtown.

Austin | 608 Guadalupe | 849+ Feet | 63 Floors | Proposed
 

This is trilliondollarted's post from the update thread. I also copied all the posts related to this project from the update thread beginning with the Panowing's drone view link that indicated that this could be a tall project.

So it'll have "shoulders" like the Sears Tower does, and at the 54th floor at 710 feet. I likey.

According to that, it looks like it'll be office and residential. I know that was mentioned already, but those levels show "O" - presumably indicating office, and "R" for residential. The 63rd floor is actually the roof slab. It'll have 62 actual floors.

Now this is nice, I'm assuming mixed use. This is the plus side about CVCs. Now they just need to build it ASAP.

It's thankfully not Sutton any more. See AusTexDevelopment's post - 2nd one in this thread.

I think the tower as proposed is 866' tall (to the tip of the crown). The crown seems to rise ~16.5' above the parapet level.

It looks like 18 floors of office above the pedestal with one heck of a outside break area, topped out with condos. I first thought pedestal, hotel, condos, but the height would have been considerably less. If it was all office, we might have had something closer to 1000ft. This will be awesome given the location and finally getting a supertall (by Austin standards) further north from the river. I like this thing. I hope I'm not being toyed with again.

I was using a sheet of paper up against the screen and marked it at the highest part of the crown above the last listed height on the elevation (the parapet), and I came up with 20 feet by comparing that distance to other listed levels. If that's true, that would make it 869 feet.

Apparently Lincoln Property is behind this one as well as the other potential new tallest at 308 Guadalupe (along with Phoenix Property Co.). That seems like a pretty full plate.

That drone pano would make sense at 419' and 773'. Maybe 419' is the view from the first residential level while 773' would be a penthouse view.

Judging by the renderings, plan, and the quality and specific heights of the pano's, this seems like it may have a strong backing. It is a beautiful building!

This tower about to make that 400-600 ft plateau in our skyline into its bitch!

Awesome bro!!!

Wow, I hope this comes to fruition. Based on the SSP diagram page for Texas, this would be the 5th tallest building in the state (roof height), or 7th when including spires, etc.

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=78054597

Would that be correct, Kevin?

Yeah, it'll have the 5th highest roof in the state, only behind the Williams Tower in Houston.

Those other two with spires - the one in Houston is a communications mast, not technically a spire. The one in Dallas is architectural and was actually added years later after the building was built. The height that has always been listed for that one is 886 feet to the spire and 710 feet to the roof, but that has always seemed off to me. I've never thought of the spire as being that tall. In fact, if you measure it with Google Earth, the overall height of the building comes up to 850 feet - 36 feet shorter. The roof height is 707 feet as measured with Google Earth, which isn't far off of the 710 foot number for the roof. If those numbers are correct then 608 Guadalupe would be the 5th tallest in the state in both categories. It'll also have the 6th highest number of floors in Texas and be only the 7th building in Texas with at least 60 floors.

Wow please happen.

Love the height, hate everything about the design except for the trusses.

You could very well be correct. My estimation was not quite as detailed.

If you are correct, the building, as shown, would be 869.5' tall. Don't forget about those inches. :)

A spire or two would be nice.

Please don't be a tease, this is a very pleasant surprise. I love the rendering and the diagonal trusses on the one side (kind of like the John Hancock in Chicago). This is a monster building, and it will be very interesting to see how this impacts a major building at the post office site. That would be a dense section there. I like the architectural element at the top. That crown would look awesome lit. I also love that turquoise blue glass.

One thing I notice if this tower is built, it will be the only 800 footer in the state of Texas

This rocks!

This would be nice! Hope it happens. I'm okay with the trusses, actually.

It's difficult to tell from the rendering, but would this have a similar cut-out to 5th & West and Seven? The first rendering seems to show that on the west side of the tower and I know there's a CVC through the lot (thanks to wwmiv's wicked cool map).



Edit: By the way...seeing wwmiv's wicked cool map makes me really hopeful about the post office block. No CVCs cutting through it...what an opportunity! (now back on topic)

Isn't Renaissance Tower in Dallas in the 800's? I think it's official height is somewhere near 890' (with spires).

Oh...Sweet tower, by the way. I really hope to see this come to fruition. I'd love for Austin to have a tower taller than Oklahoma City. Hee hee.

Greaaaat! I sort of like how the CVC adds shape to the building by making it wedge shaped rather than just a block tower. Hoping it won't get downsized!

wwwwooooowwwwwww! This design can make sweet sweet love to me.

Another big soulless parking garage at the bottom, ugh. But other than that, wowza! Can we yank the spire from the Fairmont and put it on top of this one? :D

Love the Height but I have a complaint. So I assume its office residential with maybe some retail at the bottom. at this height shouldn't we expect more from a building. how about an observation deck complete with restaurants for the public. A mall maybe? you only need a 1/3 of the podium to create a little department store or indoor mall galleria etc. venues for public events would be nice. this is just a quick opinion but I'm tired of buildings that take away whole blocks from the city and offer nothing to its citizens. just a general thought.

Interesting idea. However, where are your customers going to park? Obviously, it is far more costly to have an underground garage. And, I too, hate all of these ugly podium car parks.

Additionally, you'll need more than one square block for a "mall." If I'm not mistaken, this entire site encompasses 1.63 ac (just under 71,000 SF). The Whole Foods down the street is about 10,000 SF bigger than this whole site.

Yes, you could build "up;" use multiple floors of the podium to increase the total rentable SF. But, again, where are these customers, employees and residents going to park? Underground or in the same size podium car park above the "mall?"

Still, an intriguing idea.

I talked to one of my buddies in commercial real estate who went to a Lincoln presentation on this building today. According to the presentation, it's going to be finished by December 2020. Also, it's going to have 500,000 sq ft of office space, and 300,000 sq ft of residential space.

Awesome! Did they give you a sense of a start time? Are these going to be condos or rental flats (apartments)?

Neat idea. I hate malls, though. But, I guess if downtown was going to have one, one place I would think would be nicer to have one would be closer to Republic Square Park. That would make either the Travis County block or the post office block good options for one topped with a tower, of course. As ILUVSAT suggested, a mall might need a bigger site, which I'm not sure about, but it would be crazy if a developer got bullish and developed both the Travis County and post office block with a mall in both buildings facing each other across the park, again, topped with towers, of course.

Hmm... If they want it completed by Dec 2020 then possibly a groundbreaking mid to late 2018? That means we have at least a year before we see any dirt flying with this. Hopefully that won't be too long a wait. The sooner they start on it, the better the chances that it will become reality.


I suspect that this may be the building Genral's acquaintance was talking about.

I think the end of 2020 is a typical overly optimistic first date that developers throw out when they announce a project. A site plan hasn't been filed, and they usually take a year or two to get approved for big projects. Even with no excavation for underground parking, I think two years to build this would be pushing it. Also, financing would need to be secured fairly soon.

I wouldn't arbitrarily throw 1-2 years out there. I don't believe that is necessarily true. It depends on the overall complexity of the project - how detailed are the original plans (i.e., if the developer has all of his/her ducks-in-a-row when submitting the original plan to the city)? Additionally, it depends on it's location - is it being proposed in an area where it could be contentious?

Typically, the site plan process can take as little as 9 months on a tower project. Maybe 12 months depending on how many questions the city has and how quickly the developer answers said questions. I would agree...more complex and contentious project may take much longer to get approved (if approved at all).


I agree. From start to delivery, this thing (as currently proposed) may take 30 or so months to build.

A construction facility does not necessarily need to be secured "soon." However, I'm pretty sure they are already working on that aspect of the project, should this proposal be a "real one."

Is Sutton still involved with this?

doesn't necessarily have to be a mall I'm just saying buildings like this would be better if they were more interactive with outsiders rather then just having amenities for the dwellers inside. The J.W Marriott is pretty good about that I feel a better example would be the Time Warner Center In New York City. either way this building is still pretty rad. It will be exciting to see when it rises.