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  #1341  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 6:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashlynn View Post
Hello to all,

I have officially been introduced to this forum and I'm over joyed at the buzz The Austonian is receiving. What an incredible project to be attached to. It appears that "Austin Heights" message looked like my message, but rather he was just passing information onto you about our groundbreaking date.

As for the eyebrow...we were sad to see it go, too. There were two issues: 1) it casted a shadow 2) it blocked the view from the skylounge and fitness center.

The skylounge is now on floor 55 and the fitness center is on floor 56. We have four penthouses that are 8,391 sq. ft.

Feel free to contact me with questions.
Ashlynn,
Yikes! Sorry about that. I just realized your contact info was included on the quote! Wasn't thinking.
     
     
  #1342  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 7:00 PM
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Originally Posted by MichaelB View Post

Austin hasn't lost it's way. It's got too many fans that don't know how to treat it "right" (or at least how I would see it, 'cause I don't like how the growth is happening either).
Well, I should say, Austin has refused to accept that it's an adult of a city. Its provincial ersatz-liberal hippie "we're a small town!" mantra is what effectively killed its beauty. It's a liberal college town surrounded by Dallas and Houston-style suburbia. Austin didn't grow up.
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  #1343  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 7:22 PM
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  #1344  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 7:53 PM
ATXboom ATXboom is offline
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I agree its a liberal bastion surrounded by innevitable Dallas like sprawl...

But I disagree as I am seeing the urban core finally grow up and mature in front of my eyes from the beginnings of solid neighborhood planning, urban infill and of course the downtown changes at the city level and residential level.

As for small college town... the urban [liberal core] is over a half million people. That's not necessarily small by "liberal core" standards.

For an out of towner it may be another 3-5 years before the core city maturity is "in your face" noticeable.
     
     
  #1345  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 8:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashlynn View Post
As for the eyebrow...we were sad to see it go, too. There were two issues: 1) it casted a shadow 2) it blocked the view from the skylounge and fitness center.

The skylounge is now on floor 55 and the fitness center is on floor 56. We have four penthouses that are 8,391 sq. ft.
Hey, thanks for joining and group and giving us a little info. While I hate to see the eyebrow go, too, I can understand the concerns, and I'm sure the opinions of the people who will be on the top floors carries a lot of weight. Still, it really made the building distinctive.

Thanks again for posting.
     
     
  #1346  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 8:33 PM
DanE008 DanE008 is offline
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Just curious Ashlynn, were there any arguments (suggestions) to keep the overhanging by possibly reconfiguring it? For example, putting it above the 55th floor? Shadows aren't as problematic as blocked views. Most importantly though, I'm just glad this building is happening.
     
     
  #1347  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 10:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashlynn View Post
Hello to all,

I have officially been introduced to this forum and I'm over joyed at the buzz The Austonian is receiving. What an incredible project to be attached to. It appears that "Austin Heights" message looked like my message, but rather he was just passing information onto you about our groundbreaking date.

As for the eyebrow...we were sad to see it go, too. There were two issues: 1) it casted a shadow 2) it blocked the view from the skylounge and fitness center.

The skylounge is now on floor 55 and the fitness center is on floor 56. We have four penthouses that are 8,391 sq. ft.

Feel free to contact me with questions.

Welcome Ashlynn; and thank you for the updates.

Would you be able to tell us if the height of the tower has changed at all? It almost as if the crown of the building is taller, now that the "eyebrow" has been removed. Is it still 683' tall?

Hopefully it's not an illusion and the folks at Benchmark & Ziegler-Cooper decided to boost the height a bit...Just wishful thinking...

I’m also a bit curious as to why it took the Austonian’s developer and architects so long to simply figure out that the "eyebrow" would cast a shadow and possibly block views? One might think that this would be pretty obvious…
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AUSTIN (City): 1,002,632 +4.64% - '20-'25 | AUSTIN MSA (5 counties): 2,620,945 +14.78% - '20-'25
SAN ANTONIO (City): 1,548,422 +8.03% - '20-'25 | SAN ANTONIO MSA (8 counties): 2,813,140 +9.97% - '20-'25
AUS-SAT REGION (MSAs/13 counties): 5,434,085 +12.24% - '20-'25 | *SRC: US Census*

Last edited by GoldenBoot; Aug 8, 2007 at 10:20 PM.
     
     
  #1348  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2007, 11:16 PM
MNMike MNMike is offline
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sorry to interrupt, just a quick question...why would they move that tree, and not just cut it down? Does it have some historic significance? I mean its cool, just seems odd. Where is it going?
     
     
  #1349  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:05 AM
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Originally Posted by MNMike View Post
sorry to interrupt, just a quick question...why would they move that tree, and not just cut it down? Does it have some historic significance? I mean its cool, just seems odd. Where is it going?
Huh? What? Is this a trick question?
     
     
  #1350  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:06 AM
MichaelB MichaelB is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATXboom View Post
I agree its a liberal bastion surrounded by innevitable Dallas like sprawl...

But I disagree as I am seeing the urban core finally grow up and mature in front of my eyes from the beginnings of solid neighborhood planning, urban infill and of course the downtown changes at the city level and residential level.

As for small college town... the urban [liberal core] is over a half million people. That's not necessarily small by "liberal core" standards.

For an out of towner it may be another 3-5 years before the core city maturity is "in your face" noticeable.
thank you ATXboom
     
     
  #1351  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:08 AM
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That's a Live Oak tree. They take a long time to get established, and once they do they are fantastic shade trees that live for up to 1,500 to 2,000 years. That tree is probably about 50 years old. Live Oaks are very drought tolerant, very good hard wood trees and can stand both cold and hot. Our neighborhood has a bunch of them, our house and my grandmother's house nextdoor are shaded by them from the front to back, and as a result even on the hottest of summer days it's tolerable outside in the yard. The difference between parking in the shade in Texas and not means about 50 degrees cooler inside your car. I'm always shocked at how hot it is whenever we park in a parking lot compared to our driveway which is shaded from the house to the curb, a distance of 60 feet. Trees are good.


I helped clean up in Pensacola, Florida after Hurricane Ivan hit there. Pretty much all the trees had damage, or else were completely destroyed. Several had fallen effectively cutting homes in half. Some trees, even large trees, so big that you couldn't wrap your arms around were blown over and uprooted ripping up the ground and leaving a 5 foot hole in the ground. The most common species there was pine tree with a few others, sycamore, elm and some other more tropical trees. However most of the Oak trees had little to no damage from the storm. It was amazing and it reinforced my trust in our trees in our yard. Just look at pictures of the deep south with all those 800 to 1,000+ year old Live Oak trees in perfect shape. As you can imagine they've lived through quite a number of hurricanes and are still there doing fine.
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Last edited by KevinFromTexas; Aug 9, 2007 at 1:19 AM.
     
     
  #1352  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:09 AM
MichaelB MichaelB is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashlynn View Post
Hello to all,

I have officially been introduced to this forum and I'm over joyed at the buzz The Austonian is receiving. What an incredible project to be attached to. It appears that "Austin Heights" message looked like my message, but rather he was just passing information onto you about our groundbreaking date.

As for the eyebrow...we were sad to see it go, too. There were two issues: 1) it casted a shadow 2) it blocked the view from the skylounge and fitness center.

The skylounge is now on floor 55 and the fitness center is on floor 56. We have four penthouses that are 8,391 sq. ft.

Feel free to contact me with questions.
First of all, thanks for posting on here and allowing us access to some great information. I have a question about the base/podium of the building (what I assume is the garage). I went to look at you model and that entire area of the building including street level seemed realtively void of detail. Is there more to come? What will be the pedestrian experience of your building? Do you know what retail may be involved at street level?

Thanks again for posting..... and welcome.
     
     
  #1353  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:30 AM
MNMike MNMike is offline
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I know its a live oak, I am a tree hugging nerd myself I am just surprised they would move it unless they planned on using it as a centerpiece for their development or something. Its pretty rare around here to move trees like that, but then we have many hardwood trees up here that grow pretty fast, maybe thats why? I am always for saving trees...its just very expensive to move a tree that big sucessfully...I am impressed. Did they maybe sell it to someone? Sorry to get off topic, as a tree AND archiecture nerd, I had to ask It must be a pretty common practice down there if someone thought i was asking a trick question...but I was not, you just don't see that happening in the northern half of the country I guess.

anyhow, carry on...I love to keep up on whats going on in Austin in this thread, and I try to get down there at least once a year to see my relatives. Sorry again for straying from the topic at hand!

Last edited by MNMike; Aug 9, 2007 at 1:44 AM.
     
     
  #1354  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 1:35 AM
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The City of Austin is VERY tree friendly. There are actually laws that aim to protect certain species and ages of trees. Cutting one down requires a special permit. We have an Oak tree in our backyard that my mom called about and had protected. So that tree is now protected by the city, and if anyone ever wants to cut it down or even cut off living main branches they'll have to get a permit to do it first. The tree is bigger around than I can put my arms around and is probably close to 300 years old.

Not sure if they sold it either. That is a possibility I suppose. The University of Texas is right now in the process of expanding the DKR Stadium. The old lower deck had to be demolished so that the new one could be built, (later on a new upper deck will also be constructed). Anyway, this also required the removal of several large Oak trees. At least one of them was about 200 years old. As I recall the value of one of them was around $100,000. Those trees were slated to be moved to another location near the stadium.

The way I look at it, these extremely old hardy trees are sort of like free infrastructure to a city. They provide shade and cooler temperatures in our urban cores without a single penny spent planting them and they require pretty much no maintenance beyond minor pruning. Many were here before the city was and will be here for a long time as a part of the landscape, even the urban landscape.
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Last edited by KevinFromTexas; Aug 9, 2007 at 1:44 AM.
     
     
  #1355  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 3:22 AM
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^That tree was probably worth $20 k to someone is a simple explanation. many peoples new yards have nothing but scrub and maybe cedar trees out in the burb's like lake area, possibly some other notable tree but not a 50 yr old Live Oak. What a beauty to have on anyones property , not to mention it was saved to live for another 50+ yrs. Give me a Hell Yeah!

Earlier I mentioned my visit to a friends place on the lake and it seemed to open a heated discussion about...no not sprawl, but yes growth in the area. It is beyond inevitable, and hopefully will not be a messy looking smattering of Cookie Cutter Custom's. But beyond that obvious process of population displacement was a suggestion that the city lost it's way or focus. NO, everywhere I go I see at least a marginal degree of what we love here. I for one don't dislike the pattern of Austin at this point. We will take are bumps and bruises at times but we have dealt with strong growth for 20 yrs and done an above ave. job I think. I stay mostly in the core of the city for a large portion of my daily routine, but I never have a problem in the outermost regions of the metro. Sure it's redundant and artificial in some areas, but that's none of my interest, I couldn't change it it wanted and have no control of it. This town has a character that doesn't need defining. Certainly not by what is at it's edges. As I see it the only problem looming is traffic and transit issues. And they will become an issue. Hopefully we can Grow Up with regard to this area of interest.
     
     
  #1356  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 3:31 AM
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Oh my,The Austonian explanation was sure a surprise... Wow! A shadow and view blockage, again... Wow!
     
     
  #1357  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 4:20 AM
MichaelB MichaelB is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MNMike View Post
I know its a live oak, I am a tree hugging nerd myself I am just surprised they would move it unless they planned on using it as a centerpiece for their development or something. Its pretty rare around here to move trees like that, but then we have many hardwood trees up here that grow pretty fast, maybe thats why? I am always for saving trees...its just very expensive to move a tree that big sucessfully...I am impressed. Did they maybe sell it to someone? Sorry to get off topic, as a tree AND archiecture nerd, I had to ask It must be a pretty common practice down there if someone thought i was asking a trick question...but I was not, you just don't see that happening in the northern half of the country I guess.

anyhow, carry on...I love to keep up on whats going on in Austin in this thread, and I try to get down there at least once a year to see my relatives. Sorry again for straying from the topic at hand!
OK.... .you scared me. Actually it is the second large tree moved this year downtown! I am so glad to see developers see it as a valuble thing to do.

Yeah tree huggers!
     
     
  #1358  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 4:25 AM
ATXboom ATXboom is offline
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That tree was most likely moved for the building to meet some level of "green" standard. If not it is a city mandate... Oh, but Austin isn't any different than Dallas or Houston?

Back to the urban core... that defines a city. Suburban sprawl in Seattle, Boston, San Fran, Chicago, or Toledo is no different than what is happening here. The outter burbs should not be up for discussion when talking about american city character.... they are all the same.
     
     
  #1359  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 4:27 AM
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Is it me or is 360 going up slower in the last few wks, it is at the 32nd floor and seems to have slowed it's upward construction.
     
     
  #1360  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2007, 6:36 AM
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I originally posted this in the Austin update section (Copied and pasted due to lack of witty banter):



I was looking around Urban Austin and I found a website of Rhode and Partners architects. The introduction to the portfolio section shows a montage of many interesting renderings of current proposed projects (The Magnolia, 7th and Rio Grande, Gables Park, etc). To see a list of the projects there is a pdf link off to the right (including a better-looking Aquaterra rendering).

Link:

http://www.rhodepartners.com/FINALSITE_7_27_07.swf
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