AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by Myomi

I just had that exact same thought! We must investigate further.

My only guess is that it's going to be the driveway to the adjacent parking garage, which would mean that there will likely be no entrance to the parking garage on Rainey Street, which means that it will probably be full of ground-floor retail, which is good! But it's still a little weird having it organized like that. Kind of like an alleyway, which is not something you really see in urban environments. But the concrete is such that it looks like there's going to be balconies on that side, which makes me think they aren't going to be adding anything over there.

Do we have a site plan for SkyHouse?

[ivanwolf]

Originally Posted by Syndic

My only guess is that it's going to be the driveway to the adjacent parking garage, which would mean that there will likely be no entrance to the parking garage on Rainey Street, which means that it will probably be full of ground-floor retail, which is good! But it's still a little weird having it organized like that. Kind of like an alleyway, which is not something you really see in urban environments. But the concrete is such that it looks like there's going to be balconies on that side, which makes me think they aren't going to be adding anything over there.

Do we have a site plan for SkyHouse?

Here is the site plan link to Skyhouse. See #4
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=10703164

The access is for behind the building access to the Garage on the South side (garage has no access onto either Rainy or River St). Also there is access to the Loading dock (lots of move ins and outs its apartments remember) and trash compactor, then the path takes you too River St. Its like its own little alley.

[Syndic]

Thanks. Here's the relevant portion, for everyone to see.




I don't think I like the idea of having alleyways for high-rises. Smacks of suburbia, to me. But at least there will be a lot of retail along Rainey Street.

We need to also keep an eye on the lots of all the new developments that are going to be starting in 2013. You never know when they might start moving dirt around on one of those.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Syndic

I don't think I like the idea of having alleyways for high-rises. Smacks of suburbia, to me. But at least there will be a lot of retail along Rainey Street.

We need to also keep an eye on the lots of all the new developments that are going to be starting in 2013. You never know when they might start moving dirt around on one of those.

Remember that Rainey is somewhat suburban and hipster in character. This design will fit in with the current character of the area as well as fit in once the character of the area changes to more urban.

[KevinFromTexas]

That's only about as strange as the setup at The Monarch where there's basically an alley between the building and garage. The Monarch really adds nothing to the street life of West 5th, except density. You would think a building would want to face the street it's on, but nope. Its longest side faces an alley for its parking garage on one side and a creek on the other.

[KevinFromTexas]

The date is wrong on these. They're actually from 1/21. I started editing these, then had two other photos from another day to edit and forgot to switch back to the 21st.

These are from Southwest Austin at an apartment complex. The views are great. This first one shows the water tank along US 290 in Northeast Austin. From where I was standing the water tank was more than 74,000 feet away. You could lay 144 Frost Bank Towers on their side end to end to equal that distance...

In the photo you can just make out the tower crane for Austin Skyhouse.



A map I made showing the sight line from where I was to the water tank. I think this may be the farthest I've been able to see/photograph.


Looking north toward West Campus. 2400 Nueces is the left. You can see the crane for Callaway House to the right of 21Rio. It's just starting to stick up there, and should be almost level with 21Rio's roof.


West Campus and beyond. Those buildings to the left are at I-35 and US 290.


State office buildings in Central Austin about 11 miles away. Near the center of the photo is a red tower crane. Does anyone know what it's working on? Is that at the Triangle? That's the Westgate Central theatre on the right. It's 60 feet tall according to its site plan.


Downtown. Still no crane for Gables Park Tower II.


You can just make out the cranes for the Marriott here. It's going to fill a major gap here.




South Austin Medical Center.


Saint Edward's University.


I-35 and Texas 71 midrises.




Downtown and the steeple for Woodlawn Baptist Church. It's 84 feet tall according to its site plan. You can also see the roof for the Randalls grocery store on Ben White.




The Toys 'R' Us on Lamar/360.


Looking down Deatonhill where the view is. My brake cable on my bike popped at the bottom of the hill around the corner.




The steep driveway up to the apartment complex. I always have walk up it.

[AviationGuy]

Nice photos, as always. One of the last ones has some amazingly blue sky (one of the reasons I love living in this part of the world).

[Mopacs]

Great pics Kevin! In answer to your question regarding the red crane, that likely belongs to the Camden on North Lamar at North Loop Blvd. The tower crane went up a few weeks ago. They're already pouring concrete columns for the parking garage.

[JoninATX]

UT Engineering Education & Research Center Proposed


http://texasexes.org/involved/advocacy.aspx

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

Great pics Kevin! In answer to your question regarding the red crane, that likely belongs to the Camden on North Lamar at North Loop Blvd. The tower crane went up a few weeks ago. They're already pouring concrete columns for the parking garage.

Correct, there might also be another tower crane rising soon for another 6 story project at The Triangle.

[wwmiv]

We need that UT Tech Center plus, honestly, more for that program.

[KevinFromTexas]

Wow, that new UT engineering center is definitely going to be a highrise, and the design is very nice. Looking at the renderings of it, the Ernest Cockrell Jr Hall Tower is located to the north of it. That building is 172 feet with 11 floors, so I would estimate this new building will probably be around 160 feet tall. It'll be immediately south of that taller building and north of the Engineering-Science Building. It looks like they'll demolish that skinny little tower between those two buildings, and possibly even the Engineering-Science Building, which is itself a highrise - 118 feet tall.

Here's the PDF with more details and a larger rendering.
http://texasexes.org/userdocs/eercalcalde.pdf


Those links bring up some points. UT has lacked very many upgrades to its campus facilities. Most of the buildings that are "new" are pushing 40+ years old. When you look at the campuses of other major universities, they've added new buildings to replace their old buildings which are actually costing them more money to maintain because they are older and falling apart. Texas A&M is one university to look at. They've added several new major campus buildings for their programs. It's kind of shocking actually that our state's flagship school hasn't added much in the last 30 to 40 years. We've only just recently started to see new buildings being built at UT, but this is the first major one.

To put this into perspective, if it gets built at that size and height, it will be tallest building built on campus since 1973. And that year, the Capitol was still the tallest building in Austin. There has only been one single highrise built on campus since 2007, and that is the Almetris Duren Residence Hall near 26th & Guadalupe. Before that the last highrise to be built on campus was the Robert Moore Lee Hall in 1974.

By the way, at 160 feet tall today that building would be the 65th tallest building in Austin.

[JoninATX]

Another crane base is on site at the JW Marriott site. So it looks like we will be having 3 tower cranes.

[Syndic]

Some pics I took today:

3eleven was a beehive of activity. There were trucks and people and machinery doing things everywhere you looked. It was hard to even get down the street. They were really getting after it. As you can see, they have the crane bases up already. Won't be long before the cranes are on site.









Hyatt Place, as you can see, because they've finally put up the main sign. It's supposed to light up, right?





I saw that they were moving in some mattresses and stuff, so it might not be long now before it's open and lit up.





I was finally able to get in close and see the streetscape in-between the buildings.





Although the street is still all torn up there.



Whitley's got a lot of the windows installed now.









And I guess a makeshift door.

[The ATX]

I bet the Hyatt is trying to be open before SxSW. They weren't taking reservations for March the last time I checked. But with a virtual sellout of all other hotels in Central Austin for SxSW, they have a considerable incentive to be open in March.

[Syndic]

The size and breadth of the JW Marriott site never ceases to amaze me. It was beautiful just to look at and just watch. So many people working in all different areas toward one end-goal. Pretty amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. It's a pretty cool place to go take your lunch and eat it, if you work in the area.

[Syndic]

Also got a few of SkyHouse. It seems like every few days they've added another level.











I like how you can see the city in the background. Seems like it might end up having some pretty decent views.

[wwmiv]

Not too interesting, but a video of Highball being demoed for Lamar Plaza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rItpyxBZu1M

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Not too interesting, but a video of Highball being demoed for Lamar Plaza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rItpyxBZu1M

Wow, that looks really satisfying. I'd like to do that to half of Austin. It certainly needs it.

[JoninATX]

Something, that AusTXDevelopment posted not to long ago on SSC, about new projects that will be starting this year.