North Lamar/Burnet Development Thread

[ahealy]

Remind me who the developer is for The Pearl? I seriously want to email them about the zero retail thing....

[jbssfelix]

Originally Posted by _Matt

Only 4 floors.. no retail.. Failburger.

I thought the plans intended for a separate building next door to be all retail/commercial. Did that change?

[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Civil site development plans for Lamar Station.

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...SU_PLAN_01.pdf

Following this one b/c it's close to my house. I noticed within the city response was the following line:

SP 1. The proposed site plan does not meet the minimum height (2-stories) for a property in the Corridor Mixed Use Subdistrict (Section 4.2.9.B). Please note that Alternative Equivalent Compliance is not available for modification of Section 4.2.9.

Can anyone who's more knowledgeable explain? To me this sounds like this project is very likely dead as a result. If they weren't interested in building some height before, they probably aren't interested in doing so now.

I am hoping something good can ultimately be built there. I'd probably have been disappointed with the semi-updated strip center they proposed thus far. If the adjacent carpet business building is ever sold then maybe there's a chance for something better, but it's also right next door to a power substation so perhaps not...

[_Matt]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Remind me who the developer is for The Pearl? I seriously want to email them about the zero retail thing....

Ledcor

[_Matt]

Originally Posted by jbssfelix

I thought the plans intended for a separate building next door to be all retail/commercial. Did that change?

I don't see that noted anywhere, but even if it is, the Pearl itself a huge frontage of apartments along Koenig that could have had something worth walking to.

[atxsnail]

Posting here, though maybe it belongs somewhere else. The preliminary plan for the Austin State Hospital is out. It looks like it could be nice. I guess my first choice would be that they build higher and open up some of the land for regular development. Given that this is state land, maybe it's as good as it will get.



https://communityimpact.com/austin/c...tate-hospital/

[eskimo33]

I am in love with those green roofs, I wish we had more of them around town.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by atxsnail

Posting here, though maybe it belongs somewhere else. The preliminary plan for the Austin State Hospital is out. It looks like it could be nice. I guess my first choice would be that they build higher and open up some of the land for regular development. Given that this is state land, maybe it's as good as it will get.



https://communityimpact.com/austin/c...tate-hospital/

That is TERRIBLE. Another huge suburban office park in the MIDDLE of a CITY. ZERO street interaction means little-no foot/bike traffic.

This really pisses me off.

[jbssfelix]

Looks like there's some movement at the Lamar Station lot at 7500 N Lamar.

[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by jbssfelix

Looks like there's some movement at the Lamar Station lot at 7500 N Lamar.

i'm guessing it's probably just a staging area for the under-construction Crestview Station apartments.

the site plan filing for Lamar Station is listed as "inactive." the plan did not meet the minimum height of 2-stories for a building in the Lamar/Justin TOD. that sounds like a very expensive surprise for the developer unless there is some waiver process.

[jbssfelix]

Originally Posted by atxsnail

The plan did not meet the minimum height of 2-stories for a building in the Lamar/Justin TOD.

Hallelujah.

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by urbancore

That is TERRIBLE. Another huge suburban office park in the MIDDLE of a CITY. ZERO street interaction means little-no foot/bike traffic.

This really pisses me off.

This rendering from that link makes it look not so bad. There's foot traffic and even a bike. It definitely looks much better than what's there now.

It's a mental hospital guys. Let's not get overly selfish here.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by Syndic

This rendering from that link makes it look not so bad. There's foot traffic and even a bike. It definitely looks much better than what's there now.

It's a mental hospital guys. Let's not get overly selfish here.

From what I see on the first rendering, there is no relation to Lamar/38th/45th/ or Guad. So sure, everyone inside this pic is walking, but it's closed off to the rest of the city.

I imagine that is what NIMBY's actually want in some weird way.....it's just stupid. Guadalupe and Lamar are "activity corridors" or whatever the city calls them...those streets should be lined with at least 5 story commercial/residential buildings which encourage walking/biking/rail/bus/parachutes/drones....whatever else.

Again, maybe I see the image wrong. But it not ok to make this a development that faces inward in the middle of a city. I get it when it comes to the Domain, it is bound by different types of roads.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Who are all these people walking and biking around a State Mental Hospital campus? I get that physicians and administrators will have offices there and it might have some teaching facilities, but the funding for this redevelopment comes from the State Legislature.

The concept rendering seems a bit posh for a state-funded renovation of a healthcare facility. I'm not saying the patients & doctors don't deserve it, but I doubt the Leg will fund it as rendered.

Also: is Tesla the car of choice for doctors who work at state agencies?

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by urbancore

That is TERRIBLE. Another huge suburban office park in the MIDDLE of a CITY. ZERO street interaction means little-no foot/bike traffic.

This really pisses me off.

I don't see anything wrong with this. It's a closed/secured campus, it's not really supposed to be open to the public and so street interaction wouldn't really make sense. On the plus side it seems, old dilapidated buildings are replaced with a denser plan of updated ones, and there aren't endless seas of parking.

[shoreditch]

I think the major frustration is that they could easily have produced a design with greater vertical density (I'm talking 5 and 6 story buildings, not 2 and 3) on a smaller footprint of land, freeing up acres of underutilized, prime land.

You could develop everything along 45th from Lamar to Guadalupe and south to wherever the smaller, more confined campus ended. Heck, if they don't want to sell the land they could even do 99-year leases and allow development to provide a passive income stream to the State Hosptial.

Sidenote: FWIW, I also don't understand why the State hasn't thought about doing something like this with all the DPS and TxDoT buildings farther north on Lamar.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

Who are all these people walking and biking around a State Mental Hospital campus? I get that physicians and administrators will have offices there and it might have some teaching facilities, but the funding for this redevelopment comes from the State Legislature.

The concept rendering seems a bit posh for a state-funded renovation of a healthcare facility. I'm not saying the patients & doctors don't deserve it, but I doubt the Leg will fund it as rendered.

Also: is Tesla the car of choice for doctors who work at state agencies?

Depends on if that's supposed to be an internal street/driveway or frontage on Guadalupe/Lamar.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by shoreditch

I think the major frustration is that they could easily have produced a design with greater vertical density (I'm talking 5 and 6 story buildings, not 2 and 3) on a smaller footprint of land, freeing up acres of underutilized, prime land.

You could develop everything along 45th from Lamar to Guadalupe and south to wherever the smaller, more confined campus ended. Heck, if they don't want to sell the land they could even do 99-year leases and allow development to provide a passive income stream to the State Hosptial.

Sidenote: FWIW, I also don't understand why the State hasn't thought about doing something like this with all the DPS and TxDoT buildings farther north on Lamar.

I was essentially just about to write this comment.

This plan is a really, really poor use of prime land.

[ahealy]

Idk...My mom worked at ASH in in mid 90's and it needs as much TLC as it can get! This render seems totally appropriate to me. It doesn't need fro-yo shops and a tapas bar to work. Green roofs look amazing, but they never seem to actually happen. Have y'all ever noticed that? I feel like we've seen so so many projects that get pitched with like a green wall or green roof and then it's just like a few monkey grass plantings and they're done ....not holding my breath.

[Azul]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Idk...My mom worked at ASH in in mid 90's and it needs as much TLC as it can get! This render seems totally appropriate to me. It doesn't need fro-yo shops and a tapas bar to work. Green roofs look amazing, but they never seem to actually happen. Have y'all ever noticed that? I feel like we've seen so so many projects that get pitched with like a green wall or green roof and then it's just like a few monkey grass plantings and they're done ....not holding my breath.

Green roofs are really, really heavy and designers/owners seem to forget about that sometimes. By the time the project gets off the ground and into the engineering phases it'll usually be the first item on the chopping block for VE as the owner ends up realizing that green roofs require a fairly substantial increase in structural material costs for seemingly little gain. I'm a little more optimistic they keep some green roofs or gardens since they might be able to find ways to implement them in their treatments.