Austin Projects & Construction

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by davinSA

Emporis.com has 22 never built highrises listed for Austin. Just kind of surprised. Need to get all these other ones built!

I need to be elaborating more on those never built projects at S.COM. I added all of those. And actually the true number is 21. I had added the first design for Frost Bank Tower, (then Congress at Fourth), the design changed and I just left it listed and added the new design as a new building. I've since deleted it, the page needs to be updated now so it doesn't show it. Some people gripe that it makes the city look bad to still list all of those never built towers, but my aim with the site is to announce, and document all projects wether or not they get built. For history and knowledge not ego or gain.

Most of the those highrises that were never built though were office towers during the 80s when the office market suffered horrible vacancy rates. Like Mopacs mentioned earlier developers were still putting up over a million square feet of space in 3 large towers downtown, One Congress Plaza, 100 Congress and the San Jacinto Center. We also had one suburban office building that year.

Of the 22 never built highrises 12 were for office space. One was a 12-story parking garage, (the one for Intel). 2 were hotels, one being attached to a office project. 1 was the earlier city hall design during the 80s. That project was scrapped by the city because of the nationwide economy bust. 5 of them were residential projects. None however had to do with low sales or demand. Most were due to zoning, or neighborhood critism. For instance, the Waldorf Tower, a 256 foot, 14-story residential tower was canceled after the city and state both complained that it would block views of the capitol. 65 feet of the top of the building on one side would have blocked the view of the capitol from certain places. The state senate, even the governor himself, (Bush), was opposed to it. So it was canceled. The 2nd was the Gotham Condominium Tower, a 12-story, 120 foot tower that would have been at 200 S. Congress south of the river near downtown. The neighborhoods in the area complained it would raise traffic, and block views of the skyline. There was also an issue of not having enough space on the site for a driveway and parking. So it was scapped. The Monarch, which was slated for the Rainey Street Neighborhood which would have been 120 feet with 8 floors was shot down by the neighborhood groups there opposed it. The tables have turned now however as residents there support the idea of being bought out by developers, (which they will be) so they can move away. Currently there is a 142 foot, 13-story condominum tower going up on the very same site as The Monarch had been proposed. Now a 22-story tower is being proposed 1 block to the east of that building as well. The West Avenue Lofts which was built has 337 units, it's a squat 4-story? building. It was completed and the developer planned a 16-story tower, phase two nearby at 805 West 5th Street. That tower was very much a go, infact they even tore down the music store, (which is where my brother bought his violin.) Anyway, with the tech bust sales were slow. So it never happened. But now there is a 24-story tower proposed for the very same site and will breakground in September. The last project which is the Four Seasons Residences truly did die because of the techbust and economy woes. I actually need to update that to neverbuilt. But anyway, I was reading in a recent tidbit that the developers saying they will not build the project in the first design scheme which called for a 320 foot 28-story tower. They did however hint at a possible comeback in a different form.

For me, I'm not so worried about looking at the neverbuilt list and worrying over wether stuff will get built. To me it's not what hasn't been built, it's what has been built. Since 2000 a good number of downtown residential have been built. And let's face it, Austin has dragged it's butt for years in building substantial residential in downtown compared to the rest of Texas. So when I started to see a surge in new residential development in downtown in the form of towers or otherwise, I was surprised and caustiously excited. But I think now with Frost Bank Tower under our belt, and the Hilton residences filling up and developers actually coming out and making annoucements I think it shows a sign of change.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by crewer

I wish someone with archive access to the Stateman could pull some of those old renderings up, and maybe even get some posted on Emporis. It would be great to see them again.

Hmm, maybe someone should call Shonda Novak... I wonder if she'd be up for helping out in that way. If anyone could unlock that info, I'd think a downtown development writer for the newspaper itself could possibly do it. One other way to do this would be to go downtown to the Austin History Center. They keep collections of past newspaper issues at the museum. I was there a few years back looking up some building heights and my mom was the sort of milling around killing time while I looked at a map. She got a hold of a newspaper from the late 40s early 50s I don't remember the date. But anyway, her father had owned a construction business, he built houses. She found one of his advertisements in the newspaper. Their ad in the paper was actually bigger than Calcashous--sp? which is a much larger today, building material company. They had a office/supply center on South Lamar Boulevard the building is still there today and houses a Cingular Wireless store. Pretty interesting stuff, the history center is full of all kinds of goodies.

Originally Posted by crewer

Oh, I should mention that you should all be kind of relieved that a lot of them were not built. Some of the architecture was just crap.

You know, I've thought of the same thing. I thank god our boom came in the 80s, and not in the 70s. With that said there were probably still some ugo designs.

By the way Crewer, if you have any info on any of those neverbuilts, let me know, even just a name and floor number and location I'd like to know it so I can add it to Emporis.

[crewer]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Some people gripe that it makes the city look bad to still list all of those never built towers, but my aim with the site is to announce, and document all projects wether or not they get built. For history and knowledge not ego or gain.

If they think that, Kevin, I'd say screw them. Listing buildings that were never built is informative and can provide insight to how cities develop and evolve. All one has to do is spend time on Emporis and check out the projects in other cities that were never built. Chicago lists 147, but the other larger cities that have less probably do not have people as committed as yourself working to keep their profiles up-to-date. For example, Washington, DC lists 3 that were never built. THREE??? Give me a break! I can list 8 in my neighborhood alone that were never built. So I'd say that you're doing a very good job keeping Austin's record a bit more reliable. Thanks for doing that!

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The 2nd was the Gotham Condominium Tower, a 12-story, 120 foot tower that would have been at 200 S. Congress south of the river near downtown. The neighborhoods in the area complained it would raise traffic, and block views of the skyline. There was also an issue of not having enough space on the site for a driveway and parking. So it was scapped.

Thanks for the historical update on what was never built. That's great to know. But you forgot to mention one thing about the Gotham Tower. There was a reason it was called the Gotham, because it looked like something pulled out of Gotham City, and it was probably one of the tackiest looking designs on any drawing board. Travel down to Houston and take a look at the sister buildings that the developer built there. The building fascades look as if the builders scrounged through Italian garage sales looking for every Romanesque alabaster figure they could find to glue to the side of the building. I'm sure the Soprano's would find it attractive, but thank God something like that wasn't built here... particularly at the gateway into downtown.

[ScreamShatter]

I can't believe how dense Austin looks in this picture!!

[Mopacs]

Totally agreed with Crewer's observations Kevin has done a fantastic job with the Austin skyscrapers.com section, keeping it up to date (to the day). I have mentioned your name, Kevin, in all correspondence with Shonda. I highly recommended that she contact you for insight and info on these various projects.

Anyway, regarding never-built projects. I have an old Texas Architect magazine from the mid 80s. It featured Austin and the slew of new buildings that were either under construction or on the drawing boards. There are tons of renderings...some of which were built (100 Congress, etc.) and many that werent (Wolfe tower, on Congress... weird design).

If I had to pick a worst-of 80s tower, it would be the Two Commodore Plaza (now called Capitol Tower) I truly hate that building! Not that its gawd awful tacky, its just bulky and extremely bland. It really adds nothing to our skyline, yet tall enough to make a (negative) impact, in my humble opinion. It represents all that I used to hate about Austin's skyline... short, squat high-rises. Luckily things have changed!

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by ScreamShatter

I can't believe how dense Austin looks in this picture!!

Yeah, thats a great aerial shot of Austin. It captures nearly the entire skyline of Austin (more towers are to the east and west of this shot). The picture includes not just downtown, but the state office complex (north of the Capitol) and the University of Texas campus, in the background. All of which form a rather large and continuous 1 1/2 -to- 2 mile long 'skyline'. On top of this, the downtown core is getting denser by the year.

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks guys.

That is a great shot of the skyline. The best views of the skyline are from the north and south since you're looking through the bulk of it all. From the east/west it tends to thin a bit. But that is changing with more towers slated for the West End.

Here's some more.

From the west.


From the northwest from Mount Bonnell. Many of these new towers going up on the western side of downtown will fill the gap in this picture to the far right.

[davinSA]

Somehow I like the close up shot of downtown Austin. Is there a building obstructing the view of the capitol? Looks like it in the last picture. Is there no more restriction about obstructing the veiw of the Texas capitol???

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by davinSA

Somehow I like the close up shot of downtown Austin. Is there a building obstructing the view of the capitol? Looks like it in the last picture. Is there no more restriction about obstructing the veiw of the Texas capitol???

Yes there still are. The Capitol View Corridor which protects capitol views are only designated in a few areas of town. I believe there's about 30 of them. The law states that no building within those corridors can be allowed to obstruct the view of the capitol dome. Typically the wings and base of the building are not included in this law.

These corridors preserve views from north, south, east and west sides of the city. One thing to remember is that no matter how many view corridors there are, as long as there is a single tower that is as tall or taller, or even shorter, but wide it will block the view of the capitol depending on where you're focal point is. In other words, if you're line of sight is positioned so that that black building in the picture is between you and the capitol, then of course it will block your view. But if your line of sight is positioned so that black building is say to the left of the capitol, or right, then you'd still have a view.

The view corridors are protected very strictly. Back in 1999 there had been a proposal for a 256 foot, 14 story residential tower to rise at 17th and Lavaca. It would have blocked the view of the capitol from the North Mall of the UT Campus. The view corridor protects that view. The building's top 65 feet on the northeast corner would have been in the view corridor. The developer was told to either make that side lower, or the entire building, move the project, or not build at all. Ultimately the state government got envolved with several high ranking officials including the governor himself George Bush. The project was shot down and was never built.

The Capitol View Corridor also does not create a set height restriction. Basically as long as a building doesn't block the view it can be as tall as they want it to be. So if a developer is planning a tower in the corridor, he could say build the parking garage, or have a podium/base be in that line of sight. The part of the property that wouldn't effect the view could then go as high as they wanted to. So even if a property partly lies in the corridor developers can still build tall on it, as long as it doesn't obstruct the views of the Capitol dome. This law has been enforced many times and I actually support it. If anything it encourages more density in other areas of downtown since it takes a chunk out of available land and forces developers to build taller, more slender towers and build more density.

Over the years too developers have stuck to the laws pretty well. There have been a few times though when a building was built in an area that was NOT protected by a view corridor, and I wish there had been one.

There was a map in the paper a while back with the annoucement of one of the new condo towers that showed and listed all the view corridors. I can't find that now, and I haven't seen any good maps on the net that show the complete number.

[crewer]

Originally Posted by davinSA

Somehow I like the close up shot of downtown Austin. Is there a building obstructing the view of the capitol? Looks like it in the last picture. Is there no more restriction about obstructing the veiw of the Texas capitol???

Yeah, David, there is a building blocking the view of the capitol from Mt. Bonnell. I'm glad Kevin posted this one, because, unless I was misinformed, the building of that structure was what prompted the movement to create the view corridors in the first place. People were extremely pissed when that bank building went up, and the city reacted accordingly by creating new construction regulations throughout the downtown area.

[davinSA]

Hmmm... Thanks for the interesting information about building around the Texas capitol.

[Mopacs]

Yeah, its the Wells Fargo Tower on 15th Street at Guadalupe that is obstructing the capitol view from Mt Bonnell. And not the most aesthetically pleasing buildings in Austin either. It was built in 1982 I do believe.

[crewer]

I came across a few shots I had taken when Austin was in it's last construction boom. I'm sure most of you have seen similar shots, but here you go.


100 Congress, Franklin Building, San Jacinto Center (1986)



301 Congress Avenue... or affectionately known as Mastadon Center. (1986)


Austin Centre/Omni Hotel - looking into the lobby through the atrium framing. (1986)

[Mopacs]

Whoah, this shot is awesome ... I have never seen these buildings pictured in that state of construction. I count 8 tower cranes in that one shot alone. Looks to have been taken in the early-mid summer of 1986.



Interesting illusion...Save for the tower cranes, it appears as though a blanket of clouds is obscuring the tops of the completed buildings. (The tops of each building are almost level, from that perspective)

[crewer]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

Interesting illusion...Save for the tower cranes, it appears as though a blanket of clouds is obscuring the tops of the completed buildings. (The tops of each building are almost level, from that perspective)

I'll have to credit PhotoShop for that sky. The pic was actually pretty dark when I scanned it, and some of the construction detail was lost in shadow. Lightening it brought out the detail but then washed out the sky. Oh well...

[texboy]

wow those are awesome pics! Just wondering, would you happen to have any construction pics of San Antonio's downtown? Maybe with Weston Center going up or the Mariott? I've been looking for a while for anything, and the only thing I can find are pics of the Tower of Americas going up.

[Mopacs]

More dense mixed-use development is on its way to downtown. This time on the property of the Hyatt on the south shore of Town Lake. See Statesman article below:

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/08/19hyatt.html

----------------------------------

Hyatt buyers have big ideas for site

Company will renovate the hotel, later may add housing, restaurants and shops.


The hike-and-bike trail between Town Lake and the Hyatt Regency Austin likely will remain the same, but the building and its surrounding property could see some changes under early plans by Grand Prairie-based developer Fairfield Properties LLC, which is buying the site. The Hyatt chain would still run the hotel, Fairfield said.

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, August 19, 2005

The latest wave of downtown development has reached prime real estate on the shores of Town Lake.

Fairfield Residential LLC, a residential developer based in Grand Prairie, is buying the 23-year-old Hyatt Regency Austin hotel on Barton Springs Road and its 9.6 acre site, which now is used mostly for parking.

Fairfield plans to renovate the hotel, adding meeting space, and eventually add housing, shops and restaurants on the site, although it could be at least two years before work might start on such a project.

"It's a special place now, and it's a parking lot," said Barry Howard, an executive with Fairfield. "This is an underutilized area that has so much potential for the commun- ity."

Fairfield is building the 240-unit Milago condominiums at the foot of Red River Street. The company also has developed a number of apartment projects in Central Texas.

Fairfield put the hotel and land under contract about 40 days ago, and Howard said the sale is expected to close soon. The Chicago-based Hyatt chain would continue to manage the hotel.

"We would want the Hyatt flag and management," Howard said. "We look forward to a long-term relationship with them."

The hotel, with 446 rooms and more than 300,000 square feet, is appraised on property tax rolls at $29.5 million. Howard declined to disclose the purchase price or Fairfield's investors in the deal.

Although Fairfield's plans are in the early stages, the vision calls for a mix of uses. One scenario would include two residential buildings, shops and restaurants, Howard said. The plans might include a marina where people could dock canoes, rowboats and kayaks.

The site includes about a quarter-mile stretch of the hike-and-bike trail, which would remain under any development plans.

Neighborhood groups have opposed development of nearby tracts, but Howard said Fairfield would share its plans with those groups once the plans were firm.

"If and when we have any type of plan for future potential land uses, we plan to meet with the neighborhood first," he said. "We understand the significance of this location."

There also could be zoning hurdles if plans exceed what's allowed under current city restrictions that apply to property along Town Lake.

Howard said the site's existing zoning allows "fairly reasonably intense commercial use," although building heights are limited to 200 feet.

For now, Howard said, developers "are primarily focusing on the hotel and its environs"

City Council Member Brewster McCracken said he endorsed Fairfield's early concept because it would "turn an asphalt parking lot" into the type of dense, mixed use development the city is encouraging downtown.

That developers spotted opportunity in the Hyatt site isn't surprising. The downtown residential boom that started four years ago has spread south of Town Lake, including a proposed 179-unit tower just west of the Hyatt at 210 Barton Springs Road.

Three projects have been announced in the past two weeks alone.

"The demand for downtown living has been hugely underestimated," said Robert Barnstone, a partner in a proposed 36-story condo tower at West Third and Bowie streets. " There is room for many more buildings."

The Hyatt is a piece of Austin history. Developed by Dallas-based Criswell Development Corp., the hotel was the city's largest and tallest when it opened in March 1982, with then-Mayor Carole McClellan — now Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn — as its first guest.

It was an instant success, with its owners turning a profit just 10 weeks after opening — three years ahead of projections.

Architects first designed it as a 25-story building, but later revised it downward, saying the "taller height would not have fit in in Austin."

[KevinFromTexas]

Great to see you got those up there crewer. Wow those are nice. Like Mopacs said that shot from south of Town Lake is awesome. Mastadon Center. They also found some fossils beneath 100 Congress too I believe. If you ever visit 301 Congress they have the skull of a sabertooth lion, and some other fossils on display in the lobby on the Brazos Street side. Neat stuff. If you wouldn't mind crewer I'd like to add those construction pics to Skyscrapers.com for those buildings.

Originally Posted by texboy

wow those are awesome pics! Just wondering, would you happen to have any construction pics of San Antonio's downtown? Maybe with Weston Center going up or the Mariott? I've been looking for a while for anything, and the only thing I can find are pics of the Tower of Americas going up.

I haven't really come across any pictures yet of downtown San Antonio under construction. One thing though that I've been lucky with is gathering postcards. If you live in San Antonio texboy, you should be able to find some at the Alamo gift shop, the gift shops on Blum Street, and the gift shops on Alamo Plaza, next to the Menger Hotel. There's also a Eckerds store on the riverwalk that I've found a lot of postcards at. I have one or two postcards, aerials, from way back showing the skyline during the construction of the Marriott Rivercenter. Someone else posted some similar stuff, I believe some shots of the Marriott itself under construction? Was that you Mopacs? I've been off the forum for so long I don't remember. Anyway Texboy, your best bet is postcards. You may also try used book stores. Does San Antonio have a Half Priced Book Store? They're based in Austin and have stores in Austin, Round Rock and San Marcos I know. They're a great place to find old books of your city that sometimes show the skyline under construction.

I may have some saved on my computer also. Once my email is up and working I'll let you know. I could email some of them to you. Try and remind me and I'll get them to you.

[Saddle Man]

Half Price Books is a Dallas company.

[Paul in S.A TX]

San Antonio has several half price book locations.