AUSTIN | Waterline | 1,034 Feet | 73 Floors | T/O

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by urbancore

welcome.

check out the Zilker neighborhood. its the best! no bias here!

[Nickelplate]

This site is cursed. Vignette? 21C? How many iterations of Waller Park Place? Now this one...for the record I wouldn't throw this proposal out of bed in the morning. Call me when they start digging.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by resansom

Love the location, love the height, love certain design aspects of it - but, I'm sorry, the overall impression is a mess, if not outright fugly. Maybe it'll grow on me, and I would be OK with it even if it's built with zero changes, but I hope there are some major design revisions to come, before construction begins. Maybe it's a good thing that we're in a bit of a slowdown as it may give them a chance to re-think the final design before the first spade of dirt is overturned...

Agree, AND...the pinnacle of the crown is an interesting place to put a pipe organ. I can't say I'm a big fan of the brick pattern, and its hard to get a floor count or the scope of the height when the floors are sectioned off 2 floors at a time. Like 6X, this is another tower stacked on another tower. Only this is a bit more obvious with the 70 Rainey stilt thing going on, twice. I'm not a hater by any means, its just....when we talk about this monumental milestone, our tallest building in Austin, this is what we'll be talking about. That being said, if I can like 405, I'll probably learn to like this too. Whether or not it gets built, at least we are still getting new proposals and renderings. It keeps things interesting.

[myBrain]

The interaction with the waterfront does it for me, and the height is cool, especially if it's a supertall. But I feel like I need to see better renderings of the tower portion before I fall in love with it.

It is KPF so we are in good hands. This is a cool building that shares some resemblance: https://www.kpf.com/projects/18-robinson

[Speculator]

Originally Posted by myBrain

The interaction with the waterfront does it for me, and the height is cool, especially if it's a supertall. But I feel like I need to see better renderings of the tower portion before I fall in love with it.

It is KPF so we are in good hands. This is a cool building that shares some resemblance: https://www.kpf.com/projects/18-robinson

Great comp. Singapore has a lot of great green buildings.

The developer did do a good job of making the water blue and attractive...

[AustinGoesVertical]

Well, talk about a twist. 240 key 5-Star hotel... I wonder who the operator is? When WPP was first proposed, the prospect of a trio of towers was exciting but Austin has become notably more dense since then. At this point, stacking the programs into a legit super tall is a very pleasant surprise.

I love how it functions on the lot and with the creek as far as site layout. This will be a really nice gateway between Cesar Chavez and then the Rainey District, sort of like the notch in between. It’s going to be incredibly prominent where it’s positioned, especially if The Travis is in limbo and it stands on its own for a bit.

[We vs us]

Color me skeptical about a 5 star hotel. I think hotels will be legit investments again by the time this gets built... but I’m not sure Austin’s really ready for a 5er quite yet.

[Riverranchdrone]

Originally Posted by N90

I live in Atlanta and we don't get tall buildings here. We get short highrises and midsize highrises at best. We don't get things like Texas Tower (Houston), 6XG (Austin), and this.

Our best towers are the cutesy and pretty short ones. Great for what they are but they lack any kinda height that can get one excited. The only "tall" towers we hear about here are fake projects that don't exist or the ones the city built over a decade or many decades ago.

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=14009

But Austin? Austin's different. I like it, I'm moving to Austin in February.

Atlanta has a very unusual downtown. It seems very stretched out and long. Welcome to Austin. Check out my youtube page. https://www.youtube.com/user/partyboyrrock . The group I am in we just released a video on the Mueller area and in the next few days we will be releasing a new video based on South Congress.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by The ATX

The second tower would be Block 190 next to IHOP. The only info we have about it - which isn't much - has been already posted in this thread. But based on the square footage and use, my guess is that it's around 750'-800'. But every tower that hasn't broken ground including this new proposal is not a sure thing. I wouldn't be surprised if we go two years without a groundbreaking for big downtown tower. It's been close to year already.

Thanks. Wasn't sure if it was that lot or the one with the former condos on it.

[AustinGoesVertical]

This design is really interesting. It reminds me of what 44 East is doing with its interiors under Michael Hsu. It has an “earthy” tone and I like how the staggered beams go from the base, appear again at the amenity level, and then at the top with the crown. This gives the building strong continuity. I’m not sure what the orange-brown material is that breaks up the glass but it provides rhythm to the fenestration and prevents it from being a generic glass high rise. Overall, it’s a tower that I feel will play up more than the renderings if the materials are top-notch. I’m curious if the orange-brown sections are sealed wood. To bring the nature of the creek up into the sky would be a nice look. It definitely has an Asian design — a big boy global building, like what you might see in Shanghai.

[clubtokyo]

For sure has an Asian global city vibe! Good call AGV.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Agree, AND...the pinnacle of the crown is an interesting place to put a pipe organ. I can't say I'm a big fan of the brick pattern, and its hard to get a floor count or the scope of the height when the floors are sectioned off 2 floors at a time. Like 6X, this is another tower stacked on another tower. Only this is a bit more obvious with the 70 Rainey stilt thing going on, twice. I'm not a hater by any means, its just....when we talk about this monumental milestone, our tallest building in Austin, this is what we'll be talking about. That being said, if I can like 405, I'll probably learn to like this too. Whether or not it gets built, at least we are still getting new proposals and renderings. It keeps things interesting.

I find the tower on top of tower building typology to be an interesting 21st-century solution that Austin could spearhead as its downtown grows taller. It keeps the building busy 24/7 by mixing up the uses - residential, office, hotel. The programs are visually and physically broken up by those grand "sky lobbies" that have great outdoor amenity spaces with incredible views. And in this day and age where office space may be less desired in the coming years as more people opt to work from home, it may be the only way tall towers are built in the future. I say keep 'em coming.

[drummer]

So far as Asian, this feels like Kuala Lumpur or Singapore to me more than China - only because the topical, natural feel of those two cities due to their geography and how it has influenced their architecture. Bangkok has some of this as well. Many of their new developments and buildings have a lot of open air spaces and greenery.

I'm excited to see this one happen and am hopeful it's close to the rendering that we have now.

[mercury6]

"74th (floor) features a residential amenity space."


Easily the best residential amenity space in Texas

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Color me skeptical about a 5 star hotel. I think hotels will be legit investments again by the time this gets built... but I’m not sure Austin’s really ready for a 5er quite yet.

Maybe. As of their February 2020 listing, The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown (Houston) and Hotel Emma (San Antonio) are the only AAA 5-Diamond hotels in Texas. Additionally, Forbes 2021 Travel Guide ranks The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown (Houston) and The Ritz-Carlton (Dallas) as the only 5-Star hotels in Texas.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Well, that's good news. I had trouble reading the numbers on the elevation. The top one is pretty easy to read - 1,409 feet. Of course, that's the above sea level height. The number at the bottom is more difficult, but I'm a nerd, so I got out my magnifying glass like Inspector Gadget to read it. It's still a little hard to read, but I think the number is 408 feet 3 inches. So, that gives us a height there of 1,000 feet 9 inches. BUT, the height on the elevation is only to the main roof and there is some height above that. I think the highest point of the crown/mechanical roof appears to be around 50 feet above the main roof. So I'm thinking the height is likely close to 1,050 feet.

Again...not to be nitpick here...but, HAIF listed the height at 1,474' MSL. Thus, this baby would be closer to 1,066' tall.

[deerhoof]

Not that confirmation is needed, but Towers confirmed this is a "supertall" with a rep from Lincoln:

We’ve confirmed with Seth Johnston, a senior vice president for Lincoln’s Austin office, that the details of the tower posted online and seen here are “relatively accurate” and generally reflect the developers’ plans for the site — and although the project’s exact height isn’t entirely clear, Johnston also confirms that the building will indeed qualify as a “supertall” tower of 984 feet (300 meters) or taller.

https://austin.towers.net/downtown-a...er-creek-site/

[the Genral]

Ok, so based on the first picture on the Towers Page, I'm liking the design a bit more, from that angle and perspective. If this is added, and with 6X, our tallest buildings will be really spaced out from each other. I don't think any other US city would compare to this kind of spread with their tallest. I don't know which project this pertained to, I think 6X, but didn't the FAA poo poo their plans for going taller. This would be even closer to the port. Could they step in and say nfw?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Ok, so based on the first picture on the Towers Page, I'm liking the design a bit more, from that angle and perspective. If this is added, and with 6X, our tallest buildings will be really spaced out from each other. I don't think any other US city would compare to this kind of spread with their tallest. I don't know which project this pertained to, I think 6X, but didn't the FAA poo poo their plans for going taller. This would be even closer to the port. Could they step in and say nfw?

The FAA never limited the height of 6xG. We had a disjointed discussion across multiple threads that I started (unfortunately)about FAA height limits in Austin. I think things got even more confused/misinterpreted after discussions wrapped up.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by N90

I live in Atlanta and we don't get tall buildings here. We get short highrises and midsize highrises at best. We don't get things like Texas Tower (Houston), 6XG (Austin), and this.

Our best towers are the cutesy and pretty short ones. Great for what they are but they lack any kinda height that can get one excited. The only "tall" towers we hear about here are fake projects that don't exist or the ones the city built over a decade or many decades ago.

I must be thinking of a different Atlanta, the one with the BoA Plaza, my overall favorite, SunTrust Plaza, One Atlantic Center, Peachtree Tower, and another favorite because its round, the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, plus almost forty, 400+ towers, eleven of which are over 600'. I've been to Atlanta and because of that one visit, I love the downtown skyline, food, sports teams and the State of Georgia in general. So I have to assume you were presenting, tongue in cheek. You have a ton of skyscrapers that I consider signature towers and can only wish we had more of here. Glad to have you moving here, in fact proud you chose here, but don't look in your rearview mirror when you leave Atlanta, you might decide to stay. I would be happy with ANY one of your top ten over this proposed tower. If we are drooling over the design because its a super tall, its like me going to a football game because I love football, but don't really care for either team playing like when my wife makes me take her to a Longhorn game. It lessens the enthusiasm somewhat. I can't root for this tower because it so tall, but I won't shoot it down either. Its just not what I envision our first and maybe only supertall should look like. Just me I suppose.