AUSTIN | Projects & Construction II - Page 426

Jdawgboy · #**8501** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 5:21 PM**

Plus if you count UT, then there are still several cranes up. So technically there are cranes in the central core just not in DT proper...

photoLith · #**8502** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 8:20 PM**

Is SXSW being held at the W Hotel now, or is that not until next year?

wwmiv · #**8503** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 9:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Is SXSW being held at the W Hotel now, or is that not until next year?

ACL's studio is at the W, not SXSW. ACL Music Festival is still at Zilker.

Myomi · #**8504** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 9:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The last highrise to finish construction during the 90s in downtown was the Price Daniel Building in the Capitol complex in 1991.

But I also remember when they did the underground extension of the Capitol from 1991 to 1993, that they had two large tower cranes north of the Capitol.

After that there were no cranes (I believe) from 1994 to 1996.

Then in 1997 they broke ground on the Travis County Jail. That construction lasted until 2001 which led into the boom that has only recently slowed. The Frost Bank Tower broke ground on November 27, 2001, which was my 21st birthday.

So I think longest period of time during the last 20 years that there hasn't been a crane in downtown was from 1994 to 1996.

From 1991 to 2011 Downtown Austin added 26 highrises to boost the total highrise count in Austin by 22%. 3 of those became the tallest buildings in the city. We also gained 4 buildings that held the titles of tallest hotel, tallest office building and 2 new tallest residential buildings.

From 2004 to 2010 we replaced 8 of our top 10 buildings.

Before 2002, the Texas Capitol was still the 7th tallest building in the city. It had been the tallest until 1974, and then by 2010 dropped to the 18th tallest. Not only that, but there are at least 15 proposals I can think of off the top of my head that would be taller than the Capitol. They would push it to the 33rd tallest in the city. Not only that, but the new county courthouse would likely be taller than the Capitol, and that's rather big news because the Texas Capitol has been the tallest government building in Austin for 123 years.

After Frost was done, I don't think there were Cranes anywhere in Austin's core, Downtown or UT. I feel the cranes for Frost came down somewhere around mid-2003 (Frost topped out on May 28, 2003). Maybe someone could refresh my memory, but I think there was a mini gap from that point until the next project was under construction. My point being that looking back, the boom period seems like an entire decade, but there were slow points much like this one where nothing major was going up. My dates for what actually was a building boom are 2005 to 2011. Six years of solid construction isn't too shabby...

The ATX · #**8505** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 9:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Is SXSW being held at the W Hotel now, or is that not until next year?

The new ACL studio at the W is an official SXSW showcase this year.

wwmiv · #**8506** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 10:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hill Country

The new ACL studio at the W is an official SXSW showcase this year.

Really? Ignore my last post then.

BevoLJ · #**8507** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 11:16 PM**

ACL live has three nights that are showcases for SXSW this year. I'll post a link to those nights below.

Widespread Panic
http://www.acl-live.com/calendar/2011/3/sxsw-widespread-panic

Flogging Molly
http://www.acl-live.com/calendar/2011/3/sxsw-flogging-molly

And the night I'd enjoy, Lucinda Williams
http://www.acl-live.com/calendar/2011/3/sxsw-lucinda-williams

KevinFromTexas · #**8508** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 12:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myomi

After Frost was done, I don't think there were Cranes anywhere in Austin's core, Downtown or UT. I feel the cranes for Frost came down somewhere around mid-2003 (Frost topped out on May 28, 2003). Maybe someone could refresh my memory, but I think there was a mini gap from that point until the next project was under construction. My point being that looking back, the boom period seems like an entire decade, but there were slow points much like this one where nothing major was going up. My dates for what actually was a building boom are 2005 to 2011. Six years of solid construction isn't too shabby...

Yes, Frost's cranes did come down in 2003. BUT, Whole Foods started construction on their headquarters in 2003 and it ended in 2005. There were still other overlapping projects, too. The Milago Condos on Rainey Street broke ground in 2004 and finished in 2006. There was also the Marriott on 4th Street that broke ground in 2004 and finished in 2006. 360 broke ground in 2006 and finished in 2008. And of course The Austonian broke ground that year and wrapped up in 2010. There may have been a few gaps in there somewhere maybe only a month or so, but there were still cranes those years.

The Milago Condominiums was kind of a significant building, because at the time it was the largest we'd ever seen, with 250 units. But of course the largest now is 360 I believe which has 442 units.

BevoLJ · #**8509** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 3:42 AM**

When did those condos on 9th and Lamar get finished? The ones where Ann Richards lived in? I remember those were being built right when I moved back from LA to Austin and it was the first Condo I could remember like that downtown. I thought they were the cool as hell for Austin. Man I would have killed to have had a place in there back then. Now there are condos all over downtown and they go unnoticed. =(

That building may seem smaller and unnoticeable now, but just a few years ago when it went up, it really did add to the sky line having a residential like that. That was before Frost I believe.

Man I hated Frost when it went up. I thought it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen and totally ruined the sky line. Now I love it. Frost wasn't built yet when we had the first ACL fest in 2002, but I remember in 2003 how it totally screwed up the skyline behind that one main stage. It drove me nuts.

gardensoul · #**8510** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 11:22 AM**

This is going up quickly at the northeast corner of Guadalupe and Dean Keeton. Looks like an attempt to harmonize the blocky (dare I say brutalist?) Communications complex with the more traditional look of the older campus buildings.

JACKinBeantown · #**8511** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 3:19 PM**

I got a degree from the UT College of Communications, and I will hereby state that the entire CMA/CMB/HSM complex is indeed brutal. This new building is a welcome addition.

MichaelB · #**8512** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 3:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Is SXSW being held at the W Hotel now, or is that not until next year?

yes, AND the terrace will be open all week long as well, They had free Bloody Marys and tacos yesterday AM!

migol24 · #**8513** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 4:40 PM**

why is it called brutalist?

llamaorama · #**8514** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 5:48 PM**

AFAIK, the brutal in brutalism ostensibly refers to the french term for raw poured concrete, beton brut. Lots of exposed unpainted concrete in weird structural forms tends to be its hallmark. I dunno what makes it different from modernism in general-maybe its much bulkier?

A good example might be the Boston City Hall, the Habitat 67 stack of cubes thing in Montreal, the Barbican and Trellick Towers in the UK, or Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

[nobody cares]I only care because when I was a kid, my grandmother's workplace was a large and somewhat famous brutalist building that is now demolished, the Houston Independent School District HQ on Richmond Ave. I always thought it was a cool place because there was a big atrium and funky stairs and a grass berm around the base which my 5 year old self would run up and down.[/nobody cares]

MichaelB · #**8515** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 5:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by migol24

why is it called brutalist?

The Wikipedia description is decent.

The British architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term in 1953, from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings. The term gained wide currency when the British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in the title of his 1966 book, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?, to characterize a somewhat recently established cluster of architectural approaches, particularly in Europe.[1]

So, brutalism was actually a misused english translation of the intent of the form. It has since being often applied to anything people find "brutal" or often, "ugly".

It, like many things of the recent past, is often disliked as a form of architecture. But it was an important step in exposing the form and "honesty" of materials in architecture. Like all movements, it had it's good and bad representation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture

Mellrose · #**8516** Posted **Mar 14, 2011, 9:03 PM**

Great Thread Posting

I'll be visiting it often

AusHou · #**8517** Posted **Mar 15, 2011, 3:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by llamaorama

AFAIK, the brutal in brutalism ostensibly refers to the french term for raw poured concrete, beton brut. Lots of exposed unpainted concrete in weird structural forms tends to be its hallmark. I dunno what makes it different from modernism in general-maybe its much bulkier?

A good example might be the Boston City Hall, the Habitat 67 stack of cubes thing in Montreal, the Barbican and Trellick Towers in the UK, or Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

[nobody cares]I only care because when I was a kid, my grandmother's workplace was a large and somewhat famous brutalist building that is now demolished, the Houston Independent School District HQ on Richmond Ave. I always thought it was a cool place because there was a big atrium and funky stairs and a grass berm around the base which my 5 year old self would run up and down.[/nobody cares]

I know this is an Austin thread, but may I ask, what took the place of the Houston school HQ?

KevinFromTexas · #**8518** Posted **Mar 15, 2011, 4:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

When did those condos on 9th and Lamar get finished?

The Nokonah - and it was finished in 2001.

I wouldn't really call this brutalist architecture. Austin does have some, but this is hardly it. Most of the government buildings here and the larger buildings on the UT Campus are good examples of brutalist architecture. Think blocky bulky buildings. Brackenridge Hospital could be considered brutalist architecture.

llamaorama · #**8519** Posted **Mar 15, 2011, 5:12 AM**

Quote:

I know this is an Austin thread, but may I ask, what took the place of the Houston school HQ?

A "mixed use" development that consists of some low-rise apartments behind a Costco store that has its parking in the front facing Richmond. It's been a couple years now. NE corner of Weslayan and Richmond.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.734691,-95.439595&spn=0.004733,0.009645&t=h&z=17

KevinFromTexas · #**8520** Posted **Mar 15, 2011, 6:45 AM**

I saw downtown tonight from southwest Bastrop County. The Frost Bank Tower especially was visible, but I could also make out the The Austonian of course, and even the Capitol and UT Tower. The view was from 14 1/2 miles away near the intersection of FM 812 & FM 2430. I could also easily see the tv and radio towers in West Austin. They were 20 miles away at that point.