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  #41  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 2:12 AM
AustinGoesVertical AustinGoesVertical is offline
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I prefer underground parking levels. But this isn't New York where people take the subway to work. The parking is needed unfortunately because people here (and in most cities) drive to work.
This is true. It's needed in that area and if this will be open to the public as well (which I hope and assume it's going to be), then the volume of spaces will be a positive. This podium has a chance to turn out okay, depending on what the skin is. It would be really cool if it was a treated wood, but it looks like it's a different material (however, it still might look kind of like wood). It appears that it'll be lit and what wins me over, is the exposed elevator shaft with the glass elevator cars.

THE PROBLEM is the ratio. This podium wouldn't be an eyesore if it were just 4-5 stories. It's just too big compared to the building as a whole. If this were the podium for a 60-70 story building, I don't think we'd even blink at it.
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  #42  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 3:46 AM
verybadgnome verybadgnome is offline
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Originally Posted by The ATX View Post
I prefer underground parking levels. But this isn't New York where people take the subway to work. The parking is needed unfortunately because people here (and in most cities) drive to work. The mass transit has to come first before any single developer will do away with parking. Plus, I think downtown parking is viewed as a money maker. Austin has so many large events and Downtown visitors that parking garages do make money. The parking garage in the office building where I work was opened to the public a while back, and the revenue seems to be significant based on the usage.
I'm interested in how many of the new offices in DT Austin are providing "free parking" for their employees. Something as simple as charging employees for parking OR providing a rebate to employees who do not, I think, would make positive impact and reduce the number of spaces needed.
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  #43  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 9:35 AM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
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Originally Posted by verybadgnome View Post
I'm interested in how many of the new offices in DT Austin are providing "free parking" for their employees. Something as simple as charging employees for parking OR providing a rebate to employees who do not, I think, would make positive impact and reduce the number of spaces needed.
It would also, I think, make a positive impact on the ratio of office development in suburbs to new downtown office towers. See: any other city that has ever instituted rigid parking maximums without a functioning rail system. ... and even then, it is still a shit end for downtown to have parking maximums.
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  #44  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 10:49 AM
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This project really has no more parking than other downtown office buildings. The standard parking ratio for office downtown is 1 space / 1000 sf of office. Since a parking space, plus circulation, equals about 300 sf, most office buildings have about the same square footage of parking as office. A building like Frost Bank, which has most of a block to spread out its parking, does not need as high of a podium. The smaller the site, the less efficient the ratio of parking spot to circulation space, so 1/4 block sites have ever taller podiums. Now that we mostly have mostly 1/2 and 1/4 block sites left, new office buildings will have similar height parking podiums, and will be limited in the amount of office they can accommodate until we either get better transit or autonomous uber cars that do not require parking.
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  #45  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 4:04 PM
paul78701 paul78701 is offline
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Originally Posted by H2O View Post
This project really has no more parking than other downtown office buildings. The standard parking ratio for office downtown is 1 space / 1000 sf of office. Since a parking space, plus circulation, equals about 300 sf, most office buildings have about the same square footage of parking as office. A building like Frost Bank, which has most of a block to spread out its parking, does not need as high of a podium. The smaller the site, the less efficient the ratio of parking spot to circulation space, so 1/4 block sites have ever taller podiums. Now that we mostly have mostly 1/2 and 1/4 block sites left, new office buildings will have similar height parking podiums, and will be limited in the amount of office they can accommodate until we either get better transit or autonomous uber cars that do not require parking.
There's got to be a huge valet parking market for all of the restaurants and whatnot in that area. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a factor. As someone else said, most people aren't taking public transit into downtown. Until that changes, I wouldn't expect the building designs to change much in that respect. (Except for maybe hotels which mostly cater to out of towners without cars.)
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  #46  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 4:07 PM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
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and will be limited in the amount of office they can accommodate until we either get better transit or autonomous uber cars that do not require parking.
this is key.
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  #47  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 4:31 PM
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I seriously do not know what to think of it other than change the glass part from blue to dark green and it can be a tree!



Really though in all honesty I am not a fan.

By the way there is plenty of parking for people who want to go to the Warehouse District. The garage I park at always has plenty of parking and it's on 4th and Brazos. Just gotta cross Congress and your there.
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  #48  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 6:12 PM
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Originally Posted by paul78701 View Post
There's got to be a huge valet parking market for all of the restaurants and whatnot in that area. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a factor.
This.
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  #49  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 6:13 PM
AusTxDevelopment AusTxDevelopment is offline
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Originally Posted by The ATX View Post
Turn around. Let me see your backside. Nice.


http://www.dudapaine.com/405-colorado-tower.html
It's hard to tell from the rendering, but that first frame looks like the linear rust-colored (burnt orange?) detail running up the back of the building is opaque. Why would you create large swaths of windowless space on an office tower? The detail is too large to just be covering an elevator shaft or mechanical equipment. The offices on that side are going to feel like caves. And even if its not completely opaque and is some sort of lattice, that's still obstructing your view and limiting your daylight. That much coverage makes no sense.

Also the drastic difference between the top and bottom halves of the building make it look squatty, even though it's not. It's not in a CVC so it could have been so much taller. I'm not a huge fan of this design. I guess its more interesting than a glass box like 5th & Colorado, but I don't think this look is going to age well. It's interesting that the same architects did the design for Frost Bank Tower and Colorado Tower. You would think they would create something that better complimented Frost since this will be in such close proximity to it.
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  #50  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 10:37 PM
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fuck this entire project. I dislike this so much I can't type anymo
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  #51  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 10:46 PM
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This is definitely one of those proposals where each time you look at the rendering, the worse and worse it seems. I didn't like it much when I saw it earlier, I like it even less looking at it now.

It's just
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  #52  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 11:43 PM
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Biggest POS I've seen in a while, just cut off the top part and put it in the Domain. When are we going to stop letting the car culture ruin our last great dt blocks? Has anyone let the council know about the traffic/transportation problems we have in this city??? Not to mention the affordable housing issue which they can't seem to find a clue on how to solve. We need rail NOW so we can stop these disgusting office/parking buildings from even being proposed.
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  #53  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2016, 11:56 PM
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Editted

Last edited by the Genral; May 14, 2016 at 11:53 PM.
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  #54  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 1:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Jdawgboy View Post
I seriously do not know what to think of it other than change the glass part from blue to dark green and it can be a tree!
It'd be better as a tree.
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  #55  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 1:23 AM
AustinGoesVertical AustinGoesVertical is offline
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The top part had me really excited at first, but it's a project that has the inverse of a "it grows on you" effect. Now I kind of see wasted opportunity or feel like the design is a tease. I actually don't mind how the podium appears aesthetically. But not 14 floors! At that point, it has to be better disguised. I guess any optimism with this building is couched in the fact that I had resided myself to getting a 10-12 Story 5th and Colorado- lite. At least 50% of this building has me excited.
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  #56  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 3:52 AM
paul78701 paul78701 is offline
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Originally Posted by nixcity View Post
Biggest POS I've seen in a while, just cut off the top part and put it in the Domain. When are we going to stop letting the car culture ruin our last great dt blocks? Has anyone let the council know about the traffic/transportation problems we have in this city??? Not to mention the affordable housing issue which they can't seem to find a clue on how to solve. We need rail NOW so we can stop these disgusting office/parking buildings from even being proposed.
Sorry, but the lack of rail isn't entirely the fault of the city council. There was a decent rail proposal back in 2000. I know some of the minutia wasn't there, but it was vying to be a complete rail system. It ran most everywhere that everybody wanted to go. It would be in full operation by now. The primary blame is on the people who voted against the rail proposal back in 2000.
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  #57  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 4:00 AM
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Been waiting for you to chime in, usually I agree with you but this time...I totally agree with you.
I loathe this so much I don't even wanna look at this thread anymore.
Seriously, these kinds of projects shouldn't even be considered coughIMAGINEAUSTINcoughCODENEXT. We're running out of viable downtown blocks and will end up with a stubby uninspired parking garage skyline in about 10 years.
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  #58  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 4:44 AM
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I don't know. I'm not totally disgusted by it. I at least appreciate the effort for a unique design. I even like the split design and the two different colors...but, something bugs me about it. It seems like cheating, and tacky, to have so much parking and to have it be so visible and contribute so much to the building's size. It's really sort of embarrassing.

What's bugging me a lot, besides the huge parking garage, is that blank wall. That side will face north. And this is going to be highly visible from Congress. It'll likely be buried in the skyline, but from that view it's going to be very exposed.
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  #59  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 5:38 AM
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  #60  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2016, 5:56 AM
AustinGoesVertical AustinGoesVertical is offline
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post

What's bugging me a lot, besides the huge parking garage, is that blank wall. That side will face north. And this is going to be highly visible from Congress. It'll likely be buried in the skyline, but from that view it's going to be very exposed.
The only reason to make a blank wall, aside from hiding mechanical areas, is in an effort to be climate conscious, BUT for this building that makes little sense. In a climate like Austin's, the ideal massing has the wider sections facing North and South and the thinner portions East and West. This building satisfies that (although this may have been forced by the footprint) but you'd expect little fenestration on the eastern and western portions; 4th and Colorado is designed counterintuitive to that.

I'm all for climate conscious buildings, as the whole idea is to design the structure so that it is heated and cooled naturally (This is more economical and better for the environment) but if that was the goal of 4th and Colorado, then they screwed up big time.

The North facing walls screams of horizontal solar shading, but this would be better placed on the east facing or west facing sides. So really, this blank wall isn't even in the right place from a climate perspective. If they want to obstruct views, at least do it in a place that benefits the energy output of the building.

The site plan shows two freight elevators will be located along that wall, but only in one section. The entire blank portion to the right of that thin strip of windows is seemingly completely unnecessary. Notice Brandywine doesn't include higher quality renderings of the North facing side, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, if anyone wants to see a building where a similar skin exists, check out the Gates Computer Science Building on the UT Campus. There are portions of actually necessary solar shading, but a similar lattice exists inside as well. Even the stairs are wrapped with a wooden exterior. Study this photo, because I think this may very well be how the parking garage and that blank wall look in the end.

Photo by Joseph Quattrocchi: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/120119515035853139/

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