Austin Projects & Construction - Page 48

greenbelt · #**941** Posted **May 4, 2006, 7:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mopacs

Well here's my amateur attempt at it... the height and scale is likely very close... as its 300 ft taller than One Congress (pyramid) and nearly 200 ft taller than Frost:

Great job Mopacs, now i don't need to do it!

Wow, when i first saw the building I was so excited i didn't read the story. So, I thought being that it was the new tallest, that it had to be the TStacy plan at 5th/Congress. Man was I wrong! You've got this, MetLife and TStacy (when are we going to see that plan?), Zom, 360, on and on...

GoldenBoot · #**942** Posted **May 4, 2006, 7:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by StoOgE

360 may be taller than frost, but Im not sure it will look that way.. The roof height will be shorter than Frosts crown, but the height to the top of the Spire will likely be higher to the top of Frosts crown. Problem is Frost has a a pretty substantial crown, while 360's is kinda smallish.

The roofline of 360 should be taller than the crown of Frost Bank. 360's total height (including a small spire) is proposed to be 580'. The tip of the crown on Frost is 516'. From what I've seen with regards to 360's design, the roofline will be in the neighborhood of 530-540' - as mentioned, with a small spire which seems to be 40-50' tall...

GoldenBoot · #**943** Posted **May 4, 2006, 7:43 PM**

Don't forget (I know renderings have not been publicly distributes to some of the following as of yet):

-402' W Hotel & Residences (Block 21; the tower in the picture above is much too short. It should approach the height of Spring in this picture).

- ~400' new Four Seasons Residences

-306' Kimpton hotel (directly to the north of The Shore)

-224' AMLI II (Block 22)

StoOgE · #**944** Posted **May 4, 2006, 8:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

The roofline of 360 should be taller than the crown of Frost Bank. 360's total height (including a small spire) is proposed to be 580'. The tip of the crown on Frost is 516'. From what I've seen with regards to 360's design, the roofline will be in the neighborhood of 530-540' - as mentioned, with a small spire which seems to be 40-50' tall...

then thats awesome news. So, 3 new buildings all breaking ground in the next 12-16 months that will be new tallests for the city. Plus, several more projects that would have been the tallest builing just 5 years ago.

LiveattheOasis · #**945** Posted **May 4, 2006, 8:27 PM**

When is the planned groundbreaking for the '700 footer?

StoOgE · #**946** Posted **May 4, 2006, 10:14 PM**

2007 for both Tom Stacey and this one.

JACKinBeantown · #**947** Posted **May 4, 2006, 10:36 PM**

Wow. Not a bad design too.

KevinFromTexas · #**948** Posted **May 4, 2006, 11:03 PM**

Greenbelt - Hey you should update your skyline rendering. You should update the Block 21 Tower's height. It's planned to be 402 feet. About the same height as Spring in your rendering. And you should also include the Four Seasons Residences in your rendering. It would be just on the other side of the San Jacinto Center, (white tower far right). It should be around 400 feet also, about the same height as Spring. Also as Goldenboot says, add the AMLI II, 224 feet tall just west of Block 21 Tower, and the Kimpton Hotel, just north of The Shore at 306 feet tall.

LiveattheOasis - The city's website notes that the Congress Avenue Condominiums, (200 Congress), is planned to breakground mid-2007.

greenbelt · #**949** Posted **May 4, 2006, 11:06 PM**

^ Cool then, i will.

So just block in Kimpton and Four Seasons (or do we have renderings)?

KevinFromTexas · #**950** Posted **May 4, 2006, 11:08 PM**

Ok guys, we might consider removing the Congress Avenue Condominiums rendering.

I sent an email to Ziegler Cooper Architects to ask if I could use the rendering for Congress Avenue Condominiums, (200 Congress) at Emporis. The guy said the rendering was actually prematurely uploaded to Ziegler's website.

Below is the email I got back from the guy...

Quote:

Kevin. I was forwarded an email you sent to ZCA regarding the condo planned for 200 Congress. We are the owner of the project.

Unfortunately ZCA posted the image of the building a bit prematurely. We have not come close yet to completing the design to a point where we are comfortable in making it available to the public. In fact ZCA is taking the image down shortly. Please do not use this image, as it will not accurately portray the final product.

I suggest checking the ZCA site periodically over the next few months for it to reappear as a more mature image.

Thank you,

David Mahn

So maybe we shouldn't be using it. However I think this does say something about the direction they're going.

greenbelt · #**951** Posted **May 4, 2006, 11:12 PM**

Ahhh darn. We got all excited for nothing. Well, not nothing, we've got a generally idea, but guess they don't want it to hit the press just yet.
But it looks pretty nice as is, maybe the crown will get some added refinement.

KevinFromTexas · #**952** Posted **May 5, 2006, 5:57 PM**

It would seem we have a battle for tallest title in Austin.

From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/05/5austininc.html

AUSTIN INC.

Who will be the tallest of them all?

Building projects reach for downtown's greatest height.

Friday, May 05, 2006

The race is on to claim the title of tallest building in downtown Austin.

Austin developer Tom Stacy plans to break ground by summer 2007 on his high-rise at Fifth Street and Congress Avenue. With about 47 stories, the building is expected to rise between 675 and 700 feet.

Three blocks south, Benchmark Land Development Inc. plans to build a residential-retail tower that "will be the tallest structure in the Austin skyline," according to Ziegler Cooper Architects, the Houston firm hired to design the building.

Benchmark Vice President David Mahn said the building, at the northwest corner of Congress and Second Street, could be up to 700 feet high.

Downtown's current tallest building is the 515-foot Frost Bank Tower.

The Benchmark project, tentatively called 200 Congress, will have about 250 high-end condominium units, plus up to 30,000 square feet of retail space.

Stacy's tower will have about 180 condominiums, plus offices, shops and a private club. Stacy isn't ruling out a hotel component.

The Downtown Austin Alliance has been working with Stacy to recruit potential retailers, said Molly Alexander, associate director of the group. So far, there are 12 to 15 prospects, most of them local. Retailers in Houston and Dallas also have expressed interest, she said.

The first tenant announcements could come by late summer.

StoOgE · #**953** Posted **May 5, 2006, 8:17 PM**

Hopefully the existance of the two projects will start an arms race of sorts and bump their heights up 30-40 feet to be the tallest. But I guess I shouldnt get greedy.

Jdawgboy · #**954** Posted **May 6, 2006, 8:46 PM**

Well I think we may see 50+ stories on at least one if not both of them when all is said and done. Tom Stacy's tower is just now being worked on. And its interesting to see ZCA took off their rendering saying it wasnt the final design. Judging over the past year with Tom Stacy's project we have seen it go from 41 stories to 47 stories. Whos to say he wont go over 50...

greenbelt · #**955** Posted **May 8, 2006, 3:21 AM**

Hey guys, Roughed in some things last night. Obviously, we don't have renderings for some of these yet, but you get the picture.
Also, this shot is missing the I-35/Riverside 3 projects, plus all the other projects south of the river at South 1st
and Lamar, and I probably missed some things on Campus. Let me know and we'll revise height/placement/etc.

LiveattheOasis · #**956** Posted **May 8, 2006, 3:34 AM**

That is excellent, thanks alot!

cpddavis · #**957** Posted **May 8, 2006, 5:44 AM**

Damn that looks good.

KevinFromTexas · #**958** Posted **May 8, 2006, 8:01 AM**

The Kimpton hotel project should be a tad bit shorter. Goldenboot mentioned it would be 304 feet tall. San Jacinto Center, (the white office tower to it's left), is 310 feet tall.

I also think the Gables tower should be a little bit taller. They were wanting zoning approval for 195 feet which would make it 19 feet taller than the Austin City Lofts. In that rendering, Austin City Lofts is immediately to the left of the Spring rendering.

Also, I have one more building for you to add. The Federal Courthouse. The City's website lists it as being 135 feet tall, which sounds about right. The original proposal was for 7 floors, and 125 feet. So at 7 floors and 135 feet that's pretty close.

Link with rendering and height for the Federal Courthouse. For reference of height, the Whole Foods Headquarters is 130 feet tall. You can see it of course in the skyline rendering also.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/us_courthouse.htm

Holy smokes, that looks awesome. If all these projects go through Austin's skyline is going to look completely different than it did say 5/6 years ago. I can't believe everything that has been proposed, I'm just ecstatic about it all.

The big thing I'm excited about are the views. I get excited about the prospect of better views of the skyline from far off, and views where there was once no view at all. My neighborhood in particular has views of just about everything over 375 feet.

I'll have go out and document these views this summer and later on once these towers are finished. I can't wait to see what it'll look like.

greenbelt · #**959** Posted **May 8, 2006, 1:16 PM**

:: REVISED ::

Kev, I'm jealous you'll be able to see the skyline from your house!

StoOgE · #**960** Posted **May 8, 2006, 2:10 PM**

WOW. We need to get these projects off the ground ASAP, thats a really boss looking skyline... and there are several proposals that could still happen as well that we dont know alot about.

If some of these happen, Austin will have a top 10-15 skyline in the country. Quite a step up from the short squaty one we had just 5 years ago.