Austin | Block 185/Google Tower #2 | 594 Feet | 35 Floors | Complete

[lonewolf]

Originally Posted by the Genral

My ridiculous standard is hiding the parking garage in the most expensive and aesthetic way possible. This would require mechanical ventilation and the use of the same material as the rest of the building. Very expensive I'm sure. But very anti 3rd and Shoal and Independent's barn yard fencing. I don't buy that all underground parking is a major problem seeing how NYC has found a way so close to the Hudson River, its all about being able to charge enough in rent to offset the costs of doing so, which we can't, yet. Parking podiums are our reality, I expect and demand, haha, that they at least not look like stacked surface parking lots.

austin sits on like a foot of dirt and then a few hundred feet of limestone. nyc sits on wayyyy more dirt and has granite bedrock. granite is an order of magnitude easier to dig and drill through. and an order of magnitude less expensive.

tldr; if we sat on dirt and granite(like NYC) all our garages would be underground. and we would have a subway too.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by lonewolf

austin sits on like a foot of dirt and then a few hundred feet of limestone. nyc sits on wayyyy more dirt and has granite bedrock. granite is an order of magnitude easier to dig and drill through. and an order of magnitude less expensive.

tldr; if we sat on dirt and granite(like NYC) all our garages would be underground. and we would have a subway too.

So I'm no geologist, but I think you have it backwards. Limestone is significantly softer than granite, and around here can often be ground or scraped away by fairly standard construction excavation equipment. Granite usually has to be drilled and/or blasted for removal.

New York's main advantage is that granite is more stable and has higher bearing capacity than most limestones so very tall buildings can be supported on relatively shallow caissons where the bedrock is closer to the surface. The Manhattan skyline is practically a 3D diagram of the underlying geology. The tallest buildings in Downtown and Midtown bear on bedrock where it is the shallowest. Other areas have shorter buildings because the cost of deeper foundations are higher, limiting the feasible bearing capacity of taller buildings.

Austin limestone and chalk is great for excavation and tunneling, but because a lot of it is fractured, it carries ground water and is less stable, so foundations and tunnels need to go deeper to more stable layers.

[Tyrone Shoes]

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by H2O

So I'm no geologist, but I think you have it backwards. Limestone is significantly softer than granite, and around here can often be ground or scraped away by fairly standard construction excavation equipment. Granite usually has to be drilled and/or blasted for removal.

New York's main advantage is that granite is more stable and has higher bearing capacity than most limestones so very tall buildings can be supported on relatively shallow caissons where the bedrock is closer to the surface. The Manhattan skyline is practically a 3D diagram of the underlying geology. The tallest buildings in Downtown and Midtown bear on bedrock where it is the shallowest. Other areas have shorter buildings because the cost of deeper foundations are higher, limiting the feasible bearing capacity of taller buildings.

Austin limestone and chalk is great for excavation and tunneling, but because a lot of it is fractured, it carries ground water and is less stable, so foundations and tunnels need to go deeper to more stable layers.

I feel like here, building heights are going to be determined by the FAA

[Speculator]

Looks like a very transparent wire mesh going up. This is from a distance, need to see up close. Apologies for the bad photo quality.

[gillynova]

A lot of us are posting "reminder" photos haha. Goes to show how we're all excited for this one to go up!

--
No worries, Speculator! Any photo showing progress is fine w/ me!

[papertowelroll]

Having above and below ground garage helps for getting cars in and out. I feel like if you out this much parking 100% below (or above) the ground, it would be a nightmare to navigate.

If you simply want less parking, well, we need project connect to be built at the minimum.

[Urbannizer]

Block 185 by Darius Fontenette, on Flickr


Block 185 by Darius Fontenette, on Flickr

[ahealy]

Hello hello! Loving the silvery hue of this so far. Not too blue, not too blah. This is truly gonna be so gorgeous!!!!

Thanks for the snap, Urban

[clubtokyo]

oh yesss this is looking good!

[Urbannizer]

Downtown Austin by KLB2305, on Flickr


Austin Skyline | Long Center by Esteban Monclova, on Flickr

[the Genral]

That's the best view of the Long Center ever!!

[StoOgE]

I voted at the central library yesterday and the bridge on 2nd looks like the sun has bleached it white already :p

[drummer]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

I voted at the central library yesterday and the bridge on 2nd looks like the sun has bleached it white already :p

You know, the last time I was down there (a few weeks back), I thought it seemed to have faded a bit as well.

[Desperado]

Can't wait for the finished view from here.

site for uploading photos

[the Genral]

It looks like a lot of progress in just 2 days. In 2 weeks, they will be working on the 1st setback, and I'm guessing as the floor plate gets smaller the higher they go, we could be seeing 3 floors completed every two weeks, giving this a March 2021 t/o party.

[clayton_rogue]

<p>



<p>

[Echostatic]

Sprouting up quickly. This glass does look pretty nice and I'm excited to see it on the curved face.

[WestAustinite]

I've been wondering how they will clean windows on that western face. Some guys hanging from a rope with a bucket and a squeegee?? I wouldn't think you could do it the traditional way but who knows.

[zx14]

Any updates on 44 east?