Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas
What's bugging me a lot, besides the huge parking garage, is that blank wall. That side will face north. And this is going to be highly visible from Congress. It'll likely be buried in the skyline, but from that view it's going to be very exposed.
|
The only reason to make a blank wall, aside from hiding mechanical areas, is in an effort to be climate conscious, BUT for this building that makes little sense. In a climate like Austin's, the ideal massing has the wider sections facing North and South and the thinner portions East and West. This building satisfies that (although this may have been forced by the footprint) but you'd expect little fenestration on the eastern and western portions; 4th and Colorado is designed counterintuitive to that.
I'm all for climate conscious buildings, as the whole idea is to design the structure so that it is heated and cooled naturally (This is more economical and better for the environment) but if that was the goal of 4th and Colorado, then they screwed up big time.
The North facing walls screams of horizontal solar shading, but this would be better placed on the east facing or west facing sides. So really, this blank wall isn't even in the right place from a climate perspective. If they want to obstruct views, at least do it in a place that benefits the energy output of the building.
The site plan shows two freight elevators will be located along that wall, but only in one section. The entire blank portion to the right of that thin strip of windows is seemingly completely unnecessary. Notice Brandywine doesn't include higher quality renderings of the North facing side, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, if anyone wants to see a building where a similar skin exists, check out the Gates Computer Science Building on the UT Campus. There are portions of actually necessary solar shading, but a similar lattice exists inside as well. Even the stairs are wrapped with a wooden exterior. Study this photo, because I think this may very well be how the parking garage and that blank wall look in the end.
Photo by Joseph Quattrocchi:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/120119515035853139/
