I don't know if anybody here is a civil engineer, but is the ground in Austin stable enough for a supertall? Manhattan has all that nice granite to keep things in place, but we've got a bunch of soft limestone. I don't know if that factor alone is enough to preclude a supertall, but it might make things more expensive.
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I don't know if anybody here is a civil engineer, but is the ground in Austin stable enough for a supertall? Manhattan has all that nice granite to keep things in place, but we've got a bunch of soft limestone. I don't know if that factor alone is enough to preclude a supertall, but it might make things more expensive.
The ground beneath Houston is not the best though Houston has two supertalls.
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Oct 25, 2013, 7:39am CDT Steel skies: The lowdown on the meteoric rise of Austin tower cranes
Jan Buchholz
Staff Writer-
Austin Business Journal
A gaggle of tower cranes implies that real estate development is on the march. That surely is the case in Austin where the steel structures puncture the skyline every few blocks.
“There’s only five businesses in the U.S. that do this full time. We’re one of them,” Lord said at the time.
Joking aside, both Lord and Smith say tower cranes are actually delicate animals, each with their own parameters of operation. All tower cranes are made in Europe and Asia, and operators have their favorite types. Some swear by German and Italian manufacturers and some swear at the Chinese brands.
Currently, there are more than a dozen tower cranes operating in Austin. It's hard to believe, but three years ago that was how many were in operation across all of Texas. Today there are between 80 and 90 in the Lone Star State, Smith said.
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For any person interested...no posts in 5 days for Austin might be a record!
Apparently, absolutely nothing is happening in Austin anymore!
Thank You and Good Night! ( or check the "Regional Section" for Austin to see posts. )
I would have been posting more on what's going on across Austin but my computer hard drive crashed last week. Finally got my smart phone working which was acting up until recently.
JW Marriott could start rising a bit faster now. The jutting 3rd Street portion seems to have topped out. So, it's just the Brazos Street part of the tower that will be rising now.
So basically they've toped out the little white tower indicated below—right? Does anyone know if there are any changes to the design at this stage? For instance, that wall they've built on the top of the 3rd street section/tower does not appear on this model, or at least on this model, that floor has windows.
Behold the mightly hole that is, or will be, the Westin Hotel on 5th.
Yeah they hit "rock bottom" about two weeks ago. Since then they've been hammering away noisily at the rock. I'm sure the people at Brazos Lofts across the street are hating it.
"Yeah they hit "rock bottom" about two weeks ago. Since then they've been hammering away noisily at the rock. I'm sure the people at Brazos Lofts across the street are hating it."
"Yeah they hit "rock bottom" about two weeks ago. Since then they've been hammering away noisily at the rock. I'm sure the people at Brazos Lofts across the street are hating it."
Any idea how deep they intend to go?
According to the building elevations from the site plan, the building will have 4 levels of parking below ground that will go down 42 feet below street level.
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Here are a couple of poorly merged photo's of IBC Bank on 5th, across from the Federal Court. Looks like just four more floors and they'll top out. It really gives that part of fifth street a very different feeling with those two talk buildings on either side (Tall compared to what was there a few years ago).
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