Austin | Block 185/Google Tower #2 | 594 Feet | 35 Floors | Complete - Page 49

zrx299 · #**961** Posted **Sep 11, 2019, 7:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Overall I'm for reducing light pollution especially areas surrounding DT, and I'm not opposed to shutting building lights off after a certain amount of time (not at midnight, makes Austin seem sleepy and inactive when we are most certainly not after midnight.) 2 a.m. is reasonable. But DT is the center and heart and should be lit at night. If the rest of the city reduces light pollution by say 25% even if DT is the brightest part of the city that will still shrink the amount of light pollution in the Austin area. Also there are ways that buildings can be lit that reduces light pollution such as above light coverings and aiming light in such a way that there isn't a lot of residual light escaping.

Those awful outdated sodium vapor orange "cobra head" street lights, and especially those giant high mast tower lights used on interstates are the big culprits of light pollution. Moving to LEDs that are properly shielded and angled will continue to cut down on this, but we got a long way to go.

Decorative LED strips, landscape lighting, and properly angled colored LED "wall washes" are not a significant contributor to light pollution.

The ATX · #**962** Posted **Sep 14, 2019, 1:19 AM**

At least one crane is still scheduled to go up this weekend according to the right of way closure permit. Did anyone notice if the crane pieces arrived?

ToTheSky · #**963** Posted **Sep 15, 2019, 10:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

At least one crane is still scheduled to go up this weekend according to the right of way closure permit. Did anyone notice if the crane pieces arrived?

One crane is going up now.

The ATX · #**964** Posted **Sep 15, 2019, 10:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToTheSky

One crane is going up now.

Cool.

Based on the dates listed on the FAA permit, the second and tallest one might not go up until November.

papertowelroll · #**965** Posted **Sep 17, 2019, 2:14 AM**

Snapped this of the recently added crane.

The ATX · #**966** Posted **Sep 17, 2019, 3:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by papertowelroll

Snapped this of the recently added crane.

Nice!

gillynova · #**967** Posted **Sep 17, 2019, 4:43 PM**

Nice angle!

Jdawgboy · #**968** Posted **Sep 18, 2019, 1:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gillynova

Nice angle!

Hey out of curiosity, how did you get interested in Austin?

gillynova · #**969** Posted **Sep 18, 2019, 6:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Hey out of curiosity, how did you get interested in Austin?

Hmm, good question. Well as I am from San Jose, I often see articles of "safest cities in America", or, "best places to live in America" and I often see Austin being on the list as well. I'm in the tech field so I see that Austin has been listed every year as the new "Silicon Valley". This really gave me a huge interest in the area. Other cities that I was interested in moving to included San Diego, Portland and Denver.

As most of us in this forum are, I am very interested in seeing development/construction. San Jose is a real let down in that department. No building over 300', barely any construction and the downtown + music scene is not up to par as what I want it to be in a city I live in. Austin is seriously BOOMING and I would LOVE to be in an area that has a ton of construction. Having a river or just water next to a city's downtown core is a dream for me, which is why I love going to San Francisco every so often (50min drive for me).

What made Austin stand out to me out of those cities was their music scene. None of the other cities are big in live music as Austin is and they have SXSW and ACL to compliment that. I absolutely LOVE live music and having that as an amenity in where I live is a huge plus.

I'm getting to the point in life where I want to live by myself, which I haven't done yet as I've been living with my parents and my university being a ~13min drive away. With that, I've saved a ton of money and I'm ready to start living by myself for once. The Bay Area is a no-go for me as a nice modern 1-bedroom apartment can cost $2600 here... Austin is pretty affordable and I really want to be a part of a community that's on the rise. Austin is in the middle of other major Texas cities so I think it would be great for me to experience everything at once.

TLDR: I want to experience living by myself for once and the Bay Area is too expensive for that. I want to live in a tech area where live music is thriving, has a ton of construction going on and it's downtown core is near water. To me, Austin fits that. Other places I was thinking about is San Diego, Portland and Denver but none of them seriously compares to what Austin offers.

Jdawgboy · #**970** Posted **Sep 18, 2019, 8:22 PM**

That's pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing and you would most definitely be welcomed here, this is coming from someone who is from here born and raised. If you plan to come for a visit, let us know. We can set up a forum meet DT.

gillynova · #**971** Posted **Sep 19, 2019, 4:14 PM**

Sounds good! I'll for sure let you guys know in the Off Topic thread when I do. Cheers!

AusTxDevelopment · #**972** Posted **Sep 20, 2019, 3:02 PM**

A couple of street level photos from yesterday.

The ATX · #**973** Posted **Sep 20, 2019, 3:56 PM**

Excellent update!

Jdawgboy · #**974** Posted **Sep 20, 2019, 3:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gillynova

Sounds good! I'll for sure let you guys know in the Off Topic thread when I do. Cheers!

Forum Meetups would be best. It's stickied up there at the top as well.

zrx299 · #**975** Posted **Sep 20, 2019, 6:30 PM**

Those backhoe operators have to have stones of steel and some serious skills. That's a steep pile.

Geographer · #**976** Posted **Sep 21, 2019, 2:17 PM**

How deep is the bedrock under downtown Austin? Are towers required to imbed their piles into bedrock? San Francisco's Millenium Tower started leaning because its piles were not drilled into the bedrock.

corvairkeith · #**977** Posted **Sep 21, 2019, 9:16 PM**

H2O · #**978** Posted **Sep 22, 2019, 1:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geographer

How deep is the bedrock under downtown Austin? Are towers required to imbed their piles into bedrock? San Francisco's Millenium Tower started leaning because its piles were not drilled into the bedrock.

It varies greatly. Competent limestone bedrock is typically between a few feet to 30 feet deep or so. In many places there is a softer, easily fractured chalk layer on top that has limited bearing capacity.

The 'requires' part is really up to the expertise of the geotechnical and structural engineers, and the specific foundation type. In the case of Block 185, it is a mat slab at the bottom of a diaphragm wall due to the depth of groundwater relative to the bottom of the excavation. This excavation is deeper than Lady Bird Lake, so they are building a giant floating bathtub rather than drilling piers to bedrock.

Shoal Creek is formed by a fault line, so bedrock is deeper on one side of he creek than the other. When they built the 360 building, piers socketed into bedrock around 30 feet down on one side, and well over 100 on the other.

The ATX · #**979** Posted **Sep 23, 2019, 7:24 PM**

The mud foundation pour continues overnight this Wednesday. Based on the last photos posted they are about half done already.

migol24 · #**980** Posted **Sep 28, 2019, 9:15 PM**

This is the project that I feel isn't talked about as much as its deserved but is gonna change the skyline probably as significantly as when the Frost Tower was built.