Austin | The Republic | 710 Feet | 47 Floors | Complete

[The ATX]

I see the site plan went back into review a few days ago, so the new details would be available to those involved in the process. But there is no public info about the change yet. This is going back to the Design Commission on Monday since the July meeting was cancelled. Hopefully the backup files will be updated for the new height. Also, Block 185 could still show up on the Agenda for Monday's meeting.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...rtyrsn=3041247

[ATXboom]

One potential negative with added height may be reduced angling of the East/West surfaces... making the building much more rectangular in appearance.

Assuming the top footprint/outline remains, but is raised up another 125' or so the rate of change or angle of those surfaces lessens.

To keep the impact of the form / silhouette in current renderings they will have to make top floor plates smaller to maintain surface angles / rate of change. In doing so they would sacrifice more sq footage to fill.

Lets see what happens but I'm sure this is what architects are grappling with.

[the Genral]

I wouldn't be surprised if the added height turned out to be a spire.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

One potential negative with added height may be reduced angling of the East/West surfaces... making the building much more rectangular in appearance.

Assuming the top footprint/outline remains, but is raised up another 125' or so the rate of change or angle of those surfaces lessens.

To keep the impact of the form / silhouette in current renderings they will have to make top floor plates smaller to maintain surface angles / rate of change. In doing so they would sacrifice more sq footage to fill.

Lets see what happens but I'm sure this is what architects are grappling with.

What if the height is added to the lower floors where footprints are larger?

[lzppjb]

Genral beat me to it. 122' spire is not out of the question.

[Austin1971]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

Genral beat me to it. 122' spire is not out of the question.

I'll take a spire...

[corvairkeith]

Originally Posted by scraperwill

This one is now 708' tall.

So this will pretty much block the view of 6 X Guadalupe from the South.

[ATXboom]

Spire makes sense

[scraperwill]

No spire

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by scraperwill

No spire

Ur killing us. Same basic design just taller?

Still luh ewww!

[lzppjb]

Originally Posted by scraperwill

No spire

Nice! So it took its Flintstone vitamins and hit a growth spurt.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by scraperwill

This one is now 708' tall.

I really don't think that's true unless the height grew in the last month and they are redoing all of their paperwork to the city.

[Austinite101]

If the Guadalupe building and this one both get built, Austin will go from a skyline that slightly understates it's size, to one that punches above it's weight.

Many regular people who don't pay attention to population numbers already think of Dallas, Houston, and Austin as "The Big 3" in Texas. These two buildings will completely cement that notion.

[KevinFromTexas]

The added height would be amazing, but please, please don't change the design. This one and the Block 185 Tower have had the best chance at taking our skyline to the next level.

And please, no spire.

Originally Posted by corvairkeith

So this will pretty much block the view of 6 X Guadalupe from the South.

From straight on views, yes. However, the views from say along Mopac and Lamar or any other similar western roadways are going to have a pretty good view of it.

I even caught the top of The Independent a few days ago from the intersection of Manchaca Road and Stassney Lane. There are views of downtown farther south on Manchaca, even a couple of glimpses of it south of William Cannon.

There's also a pretty nice view setting up inside of Garrison Park in South Austin along Manchaca Road just south of Stassney. I need to back up there to get some photos of the view in the morning, but The Independent and The Austonian showed up pretty prominently there, and just about anything over 450 feet is visible, too. That's going to include many more new buildings. That view is rather impressive because of the angle and how the sun rises behind the skyline in the morning. It creates a nice silhouette.

Originally Posted by freerover

I really don't think that's true unless the height grew in the last month and they are redoing all of their paperwork to the city.

scraperwill has delivered accurately several times before on some projects. The only one that he mentioned that ended up being taller than he told us was the Block 185 tower, but that just goes to show how fluid some of these projects are. I believe it. The office market right now seems bullish with multiple office towers in the pipeline, and that's just in downtown. What's happening at the Domain isn't anything to sneeze at either.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by freerover

I really don't think that's true unless the height grew in the last month and they are redoing all of their paperwork to the city.

There isn't that much paperwork involved yet. The site plan is still early in the process, and they haven't been to the Design Commission for the FAR increase yet.

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

Many regular people who don't pay attention to population numbers already think of Dallas, Houston, and Austin as "The Big 3" in Texas. These two buildings will completely cement that notion.

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by Syndic

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

I travel a lot and have friends all over the country, we are definitely overtaking (if not already overtaken) SA as one of the top three cities in TX people talk about.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

Many regular people who don't pay attention to population numbers already think of Dallas, Houston, and Austin as "The Big 3" in Texas. These two buildings will completely cement that notion.

This is true, I even know a couple of people in SA who originally assumed Austin was bigger because of our Downtown Skyline, which is the third largest in Texas. It's only going to get bigger and more densly packed.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Syndic

What a sea change. All my life, it has been Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but you're so right. It's hard to deny that we're overtaking San Antonio. The level of major investment here compared to there is very telling. The skylines do not lie.

I'm glad I'm buying a house now as opposed to later. After these buildings are built and the McKalla stadium is built, things are going to be a little crazy here.

Honestly,

We've surpassed San Antonio some time ago. I wind up down in SATX a good deal, and it's a great city with a lot going on.

But when it comes to night life, restaurants, skyline, development and density it really isn't close. We also have our pedal to the metal when it comes to explosive change where San Antonio feels a lot like Austin when we were excited about things like the Austin lofts or Triangle back in the early 2000s.

South Town San Antonio is *really* nice and the area around the Pearl is getting there but San Antonio is just now really starting to show the positive signs of re-urbanization of its central core. I think the Mission reach of the riverwalk is *really* well done and will pay massive dividends in the future.

If anything Austin needs to look at San Antonio's willingness to expend money on new public park space, connective tissues between neighborhoods for not cars (the new mission reach riverwalk extension specifically).

Where we are decades behind San Antonio and will likely remain there for the foreseeable future is the arts. We just don't have the investment there that we should, but hopefully as our tech money gets a little older we'll start seriously investing in that as well.

That said, I think in most ways Austin feels bigger.

[Jdawgboy]

For the record to our SA neighbors who may be checking this thread out, we are not bashing or trying to start a city vs city argument. Simply highlighting general observations which show this type of perception.