Austin Projects & Construction

[jmanh]

My opinion is that the demand for downtown condos/apts in Austin will remain high for years to come. I hold this opinion, in part, because the downtown area is currently a work in progress and potential buyers realize this. The city is committed to enhancing the area with additional cultural venues, street beautification/art, and retail. In 5 years or so, I am confident that downtown will be a significantly more pleasurable place to both visit and reside. Downtown is definitely better now than it was several years ago, but the potential of the area has not yet been close to being realized.

For instance, imagine living in the MetLife high-rise, one can walk across the 1st Bridge to the Long Performing Arts Center to take in world class opera, ballet, etc., or just as easily walk in the other direction to the new art museum. If you're into exercise, the Town Lake hike and bike trail is at your doorstep -- in fact I think this trail gives downtown a nature/urban mixture that is fairly unique. Yuppie shopping destinations like Whole Foods and others that will soon be developed are close by as well. And is currently the case, there's a whole slew of restaurants, cafes, music spots down there. I can't think of an area in Austin that will have more to offer -- once one shucks the idea of having a yard.

Now, of course, the critical issue is how many buyers are out there who can afford the high prices of the proposed condos/apts. I don't have any hard data in this regard. What I think is that Austin has a fairly large population of upper middle class people who are on the verge of reaching the "empty nest" stage of life. As a prototypical case, I think of some IBM employee who owns a 4000 sq ft. Northwest Hills home valued at 750K or so. The kids are all gone so it's time to dump the home and escape all of those maintenance chores that a large home requires. What I am basically conjecturing here is that because of Austin's rapid growth the past 3 decades fueled largely by the arrival of thousands of well-paid high tech workers, not much has already been built to absorb "empty nesters" and others of means who want both a simpler and more urban lifestyle.

I remember visiting Vancouver and listening to a tour guide describe a beautiful hilly area that is across the water from the city's downtown core. The guide talked about how the home prices in this area had soared because the area became a coveted location for scores of retiring Canadians with fat IRAs and 401Ks to cash in for home purchases. Although lacking the truly breathtaking views offered by this area in Vancouver, Downtown Austin, by virtue of many other positive attributes, could hold a similarly strong appeal to many people of means.

[MichaelB]

Jmanh: Thank you for a breath fresh air.

I "think" you are correct on so many counts.

[pholcomb]

Maybe LookingUp can explain why he created a login to post three times on another real estate forum. And the only thread he posted on was a New Century Living thread. http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/index.php?showtopic=5327

[LookingUp]

Interesting observations Jmanh. Thank-you. This Forum needs more contributions like this. Very thoughtful.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Interesting news here. It would be nice to see Waller Creek landscaped, with walkways, and maybe even cafes. If this happens expect a lot of development in that area. There's something like 27 acres of land that is considered undevelopable because of the threat of flooding.

From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/21waller.html

Waller Creek tunnel project surges back

City and county to discuss joint financing plan.

If this were to actually happen, I wonder if this proposed Waller Creek Commons project from a few years ago would be revived or would they do some other type of development?

[LiveattheOasis]

That looks awesome, how great would that be to rehash that plan!

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

More potentially big news... Plans are beginning to emerge about the Austin Museum of Art downtown tract, which may include a teaming up with Tom Stacy for another Cesar Peli-designed tower..... This is from tomorrow's statesman:

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/08/1amoa.html


COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
Museum negotiating on museum-condo project

Famous architectural firm would design new home for museum.

[SNIP]

Pelli Clarke Pelli has done some preliminary conceptual drawings, but the museum is not yet ready to release them. Wyatt said the proposed development "is going to be a unified project on the whole block."

"It's not going to be generic condos adjacent to our (museum) building," he said. "It will be a connected structure, all integrated on the ground level."

Hmm... I'm wondering if these two renderings are of this project.

Daytime rendering

Nightime rendering

Here's how I happened to find these.

Earlier today, I was over at images.google.com looking at images having to do with Austin + Renderings.

These two were on the first page of results here

(scroll down to the 4th row of images. Both images have a description of "austin museum of art proposal."

Then, when you click on the thumbnail you get taken to the "google image result" page and there's another thumbnail at the top you can click on to see the "big picture" so to speak. Below the thumbnail it says:

"Below is the image in its original context on the page: redblank.com/blog/"

BUT when you scroll down that page, these particular images aren't on it and there's nothing on the page that even mentions Austin, TX. Plus there's no other buildings in these renderings that would easily identify it as being in Ausin, TX, so I'm not really sure.

I thought I would post them anyway and maybe some of you will recognize it as being similar to Pelli's other projects (I wouldn't know because architecture isn't my area of expertise.) Or maybe these renderings were from one of the other two un-named architectural firms mentioned in the Statesman story.

[JRCool]

Well I really like that building, so it'd definately be cool if that was the actual rendering

[LoneStarMike]

^
Here's a second daytime rendering and a close-up view I found by going to the last page of the google results and clicking on "repeat the search showing the omitted items from the first search."

[cityguy]

JMANH,Thanks for the insight in Austin"s building boom,as an outsider I often wondered why Austin has so much compared to other larger cities.

[crewer]

Originally Posted by jmanh

I remember visiting Vancouver and listening to a tour guide describe a beautiful hilly area that is across the water from the city's downtown core. The guide talked about how the home prices in this area had soared because the area became a coveted location for scores of retiring Canadians with fat IRAs and 401Ks to cash in for home purchases. Although lacking the truly breathtaking views offered by this area in Vancouver, Downtown Austin, by virtue of many other positive attributes, could hold a similarly strong appeal to many people of means.

It's a nice thought, but I don't agree. Vancouver is light years from Austin in terms of its environment, downtown living and amenities. It is and has always been a retirement destination for Canadians wanting to escape harsh winters, much like Florida has been a destination for retiring Americans.

As an aging babyboomer and someone who is looking at retiring in the next ten years, I could easily see living in an urban setting like Vancouver. But someone is going to have to work very hard to convince me that downtown Austin would be an appealing place for a retiree to settle. And, it's going to take someone over 50 to do that convincing rather than someone under 35 who THINKS they know what retirees want.

[jmanh]

Originally Posted by crewer

And, it's going to take someone over 50 to do that convincing rather than someone under 35 who THINKS they know what retirees want.

Actually I am almost 52, but thanks for the compliment. I would have appreciated it more if this had resulted from a face-to-face meeting as opposed to a reading of my post.

My intent was not to say that Austin, in its present state, is in the same league with Vancouver as a retirement mecca of international appeal. However, I have faith that Austin will grow significantly in desirability in the next few years as the downtown becomes more refined and multidimensional. And I do remember reading somewhere that there has been an ongoing trend for retirees to flock to college towns, or at least cities that host a large university.

BTW, I would prefer to retire here as opposed to Vancouver with its Seattle-like climate. I'll take the summer heat and the sunshine over all of those gloomy, overcast days.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

^
Here's a second daytime rendering and a close-up view I found by going to the last page of the google results and clicking on "repeat the search showing the omitted items from the first search."

Great finds Lonestar! The context would seem to imply this is the AMOA proposal, especially with the large sculpture in front of the entrance to what is presumably the museum. I guess time will tell (and soon) if this is indeed the corresponding rendering. I do like it!

[Mopacs]

The renderings from LoneStar's find:

[StoOgE]

WOW. I hope that building is meant for Austin... its just awesome looking. Very very unique, and I think it would look really good so close to our allready very nice city hall and the new fed court house.

[arbeiter]

for once, a decent building design.

[eburress]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

for once, a decent building design.

Agreed! Austin is receiving its fair share of stinkers (in terms of architecture) so it is nice to finally see some great design. This one looks like it's straight out of The Hague.

[Kropotkin]

The museum-condo building looks awesome.. but there's inadequate parking in it.

[StoOgE]

I really dont think our buildings proposed are that bad.

Zom is pretty nice looking, Spring looks nice (probably wont get built, but it looks good), 360 isnt anything great, but it certainly isnt bad.. Tom Stacey is great looking. The W and Amli projects are both very clean looking minimalist buildings. Certainly not world class, but not terrible. New Courthouse also looks very good.

The only "bad" looking proposals is that other 700 foot building that was proposed and the new Mariott, which I still dont think is bad, its just bland.

I think Austin has 3-4 very good looking proposals and alot of decent looking ones, but nothing horrid.

[AustinBob]

[QUOTE=StoOgE]I really dont think our buildings proposed are that bad.QUOTE]

Agreed. We're not doing too bad with most of the proposals. I even like the Legacy building. It's not groundbreaking design, but I has it's own look going on. The Stacy building could be our "signature" highrise building if the slant design comes out like looking as cool as I think it might. Even with just the buildings that have recently begun construction we'll have some nice new diversity added to our existing skyline.