AUSTIN | Project Updates Thread Part II

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by enragedcamel

Alright, it's up: https://buildupward.com

Right now the only city is Austin, and I only added (most of) the projects 300 ft or higher. I also want to add San Antonio and Dallas, as well as a few other popular ones like Denver.

When viewing the list, you can change the sorting, as well as toggle the status filters to include/exclude projects by status.

Honestly, the biggest challenge has been compiling the data. For each project I'm manually recording the following:

• Name
• Floor Count
• Height
• Street Address
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Most recent concept image or photo

The first three are easy enough to find, but a lot of the projects don't have a listed street address, in which case I don't have the means of finding their latitude and longitude (which I do by manually plugging in the address into Google Maps and grabbing the numbers from the URL). Figuring out the most recent/accurate concept image/photo has also been quite painful, as it involves browsing that project's thread here, and some of those threads are tens of pages long!

As for other cities, I looked at a few other subforums here, and they don't seem anywhere as well-organized as this one (Austin). So I don't know how to go about collecting the info without going crazy.

My long-term plan for this website is to be able to snap a picture of a construction site using a smartphone (e.g. while walking past it) and upload it directly to the project's "Details" page (which I haven't added yet). Users who have "followed" that project will then get notifications like "a new photo has been uploaded by <username> for 6 X Guadalupe". Same for status changes, like when something changes from Site Prep to Under Construction.

I am open to feedback though, since you people here are the main target audience!

Excellent! I added the link to the sticky development thread by the CVC map link so it will be easy to find.

[enragedcamel]

Originally Posted by clayton_rogue

Wow, nice work!!

Would be dope if we could also get the 3D tower height / dimensions overlay on the Google map... I think it's KevinFromTexas who does that, right?

Don't know if that's possible but figured I'd toss that out there.

Yeah, I'd love to do that - it's actually how I conceived of this idea originally. But I don't think it's possible. The way Build Upward works is that it pulls the project data from the server, then adds the markers (pins) on the map based on latitude and longitude of each project. Whereas the 3D renderings Kevin posts regularly are made in Google Earth, which is totally different. I'm not aware of a way to embed them on a web page the way maps are embedded. I'd love to explore the concept though.

[427MM]

Originally Posted by AustinGoesVertical

Not sure how many people on here have Instagram, but I maintain a page with photo updates and project details called “AustinGoesVertical” same as my username on here. It’s hard to transfer photos from there to here, but I’m going to try.

I enjoy your IG posts! That's where I drop my photos too--WalkableAustin. The next few years should be good for capturing fun images.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by 427MM

I enjoy your IG posts! That's where I drop my photos too--WalkableAustin. The next few years should be good for capturing fun images.

Congrats and thank you for your 1000 + posts.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by 427MM

I enjoy your IG posts! That's where I drop my photos too--WalkableAustin. The next few years should be good for capturing fun images.

Where is that 3D model of downtown located (the one on your IG page)?

[AusTex]

How do we get someone interested in doing diagrams for the buildings in Austin under construction and proposed. I just looked, and Austins' boom is not represented in the Diagram Section on this site. None of the buildings have a diagram. Maybe it really does not matter, and maybe it is just plain not fun doing the building we have here in Austin, or maybe the active diagramers are just unaware of what is going on here in Austin. Anyway, How do we get some buildings drawn and put on the page?

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by AusTex

How do we get someone interested in doing diagrams for the buildings in Austin under construction and proposed. I just looked, and Austins' boom is not represented in the Diagram Section on this site. None of the buildings have a diagram. Maybe it really does not matter, and maybe it is just plain not fun doing the building we have here in Austin, or maybe the active diagramers are just unaware of what is going on here in Austin. Anyway, How do we get some buildings drawn and put on the page?

We had an active forum member named Priller several years back. He put together some great Google Earth 3D models of our high rises. Not sure if he's still around.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

We had an active forum member named Priller several years back. He put together some great Google Earth 3D models of our high rises. Not sure if he's still around.

Yea I wonder what happened to him? I hope he is doing well. We stopped by his DT residence after the forum meet back in 2007 in what was at the time a remodeled building that once was offices which I worked in for a seasonal job back in 2000. The building across Waller from the Hilton Garden Inn.

[KevinFromTexas]

I'm friends with him on Facebook. I'm not sure they're living in Austin anymore. I think they moved to North Carolina.

As for making requests for building diagrams, there's a section on the forum for that.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?f=81

[StoOgE]

Heard from a friend that the Silicon labs garage may be going away and turning into a hi-rise.

May mean they could consolidate into a single larger building and open the "twin" up for redevelopment?

Those two buildings both seem on borrowed time given their location and size. I expect a lot of the OG 2nd street district buildings to go at some point.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

Heard from a friend that the Silicon labs garage may be going away and turning into a hi-rise.

May mean they could consolidate into a single larger building and open the "twin" up for redevelopment?

Those two buildings both seem on borrowed time given their location and size. I expect a lot of the OG 2nd street district buildings to go at some point.

Man. I just took a lunch walk around there on Friday -- those two buildings are clearly primed to go higher. They do a lot to human-size the streetscape, especially on the 2nd street side -- but they're just too valuable, especially as we start to lay in rail lines (fingers crossed) up and down First Street.

[The ATX]

There's not enough info yet to give this one it's own thread. But something is afoot for the Brazos Hall site (4th & Brazos). It's being discussed at next weeks AULCC meeting, but details are scarce. It does indicate that the project will have a two year construction time table. That seems too long if it's just something like a remodel of the event space.


ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/AULCC_2020/200109/DATA/


Here's the site on Streetview. It's across the street from both Frost and the Railyard Condos site.

[We vs us]

Swear to god. Everything that's not nailed down . . .

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Swear to god. Everything that's not nailed down . . .

The north half of that block (Brazos Lofts) is also set to be redeveloped. I don't know the exact timeline, but from what I understand it'll be a year or two before the building is vacated.

[StoOgE]

If all these happen and we can drop in a 900+ tall monster in the next few years we are gonna have a stupid oversized DT for our population.

What the hell happens when we do hit 4mm+ MSA in 20 years?

[The ATX]

We have such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to skyscrapers - ~40 300'+ towers - in development and easily a dozen more large projects in early planning stages including a potential supertall. I almost don't care about new project announcements any more. I just want to see more groundbreakings on the stuff already in the pipeline.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by The ATX

We have such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to skyscrapers - ~40 300'+ towers - in development and easily a dozen more large projects in early planning stages including a potential supertall. I almost don't care about new project announcements any more. I just want to see more groundbreakings on the stuff already in the pipeline.

Did I miss something?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Did I miss something?

That would be Karlin's envisioned Railyard Condos site project. But no site plan(s) have been filed yet.

[We vs us]

It’s kind of amazing that Brazos is getting the Colorado treatment. Meaning — just like Colorado St is kind of exploding, so’s Brazos — with 5th and Brazos, and the new 500 footer on 3rd, and now this block about to pop, not to mention whatever the Brazos portion of the Railyard will look like. Brazos is a couple of years behind Colorado, but has the potential to really catch up fast.

I’m betting that whatever’s announced for the Brazos Hall plot will hit the 500’ mark — which seems to be our new plateau.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Swear to god. Everything that's not nailed down . . .

lol love your reaction.

Honestly I would be more upset about this one if they actually used the Hall more often for music events. Aside from SXSW, Brazos Hall is really only used for private parties to weddings. Whatever goes here should be tall and I agree with you at least in the 500 and up category.


When it comes to everything that is planned for DT, I guess I'm not as amazed as some considering our size. Granted metro population is a more accurate measure of a city but when you consider a city pop about to break past 1 million people, I feel our future Downtown will rightly fit a city our size when you consider there are only 10 cities in the United States that have 1 million or more people. So 2 or 3 of them don't have significant skylines, I'd say that is the exception to the rule. Austin's skyline will fit right in IMO.