AUSTIN | Misc. Discussions - No Politics

[freerover]

Originally Posted by mercury6

Is there an agreement to stop building parking podiums that I'm unaware of?

That's not how it works.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by mercury6

Is there an agreement to stop building parking podiums that I'm unaware of?

Besides the fact that they attract hundreds of cars to the already-crowded streets downtown and create problems at rush hour with people leaving, aesthetically speaking parking podiums are awful for streetscape/sidewalk experience. They create dead spaces between sidewalk activity and the living/working spaces above. Buildings without parking podiums create a much better urban experience and the sooner we can do away with them downtown (or start burying them ffs) the better.

[the Genral]

I started playing guitar long before I heard about Eddie Van Halen, but his guitar playing re-directed mine. Still kind of in a state of shock and sadness. RIP Eddie. We still have a building downtown to remember you by.

[the Genral]

Probably a stupid question but...is there an official floor count on the Capitol Building? I think its 4.

[the Genral]

Spent the day in Lampasas today. First time there. I like Lampasas now.

[Riverranchdrone]

Took a trip up to Waco this past weekend. Not a bad little city. Construction is done from Temple up to Waco. But they are still working on IH-35 in Waco. Downtown has alot of parking lol

[Armybrat]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Spent the day in Lampasas today. First time there. I like Lampasas now.

My wife’s grandfather was a dentist there from the late 1890s to the 1930s.
It does look like a nice town.

[lonewolf]

all the towns along 281 are great. great stuff.

[InFillForLife]

I wasn't able to find a similar forum to what we have here for the DFW area and a Google search didn't reveal much. I don't suppose anyone has a suggestion for a similar CRE forum for our neighbors to the north-east?

Thanks in advance!

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by InFillForLife

I wasn't able to find a similar forum to what we have here for the DFW area and a Google search didn't reveal much. I don't suppose anyone has a suggestion for a similar CRE forum for our neighbors to the north-east?

Thanks in advance!

Dallas has Dallas Metropolis
Fort Worth has Fort Worth Architectural Forum

I lurk on both of them, and they are generally good forums. But they are not as busy as the Austin subforum on SSP.

[kingkirbythe....]

Saw this in Wired.

‘Keep Mars Weird’ Is a Hilarious Satire of Austin

https://www.wired.com/2020/11/geeks-guide-neal-pollack/

In Neal Pollack’s humorous sci-fi novel Keep Mars Weird, young people flock to Mars in search of the ultimate party, only to discover that the planet is an overcrowded hellscape ruled by a corrupt real estate developer. The story was inspired by Pollack’s hometown of Austin, Texas.

[Tornado]

do any of the high rises in Austin feature heli-pads? Wasn't sure if that was a thing or not but was curious to know.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Tornado

do any of the high rises in Austin feature heli-pads? Wasn't sure if that was a thing or not but was curious to know.

Other than a couple of hospitals, I don't think there are any now that are active.

Pinnacle Campus did at one point before Austin Community College purchased it. It was originally a commercial office tower and even had a private residence on the top floor.

The other one is the Southfield Building, which was a commercial office tower. It had and still does have a helipad on the roof, but it's not in use to my knowledge. Austin Independent School District purchased it a couple of years ago and recently finished renovating it for their HQ.

It's the only non-hospital property I can think of that still has a helipad on its roof.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Au...!4d-97.7430608

[Geographer]

Besides the fact that they attract hundreds of cars to the already-crowded streets downtown and create problems at rush hour with people leaving, aesthetically speaking parking podiums are awful for streetscape/sidewalk experience. They create dead spaces between sidewalk activity and the living/working spaces above. Buildings without parking podiums create a much better urban experience and the sooner we can do away with them downtown (or start burying them ffs) the better.

Why doesn't the city council pass a regulation mandating underground parking garages?

How do buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan manage their cars?

[H2O]

Originally Posted by Geographer

Why doesn't the city council pass a regulation mandating underground parking garages?

How do buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan manage their cars?

Underground parking is a lot more expensive to build than above ground. Most of the new larger buildings have both. If only underground parking could be built, proposed buildings would probably be smaller. Downtown property owners (represented by DAA) fear that any parking restrictions such as counting parking against FAR limits would drive development out of Downtown to places like the Domain. Now that we have a green light on Project Connect I am hoping that 'the market' will stop demanding such ridiculously high parking ratios and the trend to ever taller parking podiums will go away.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Other than a couple of hospitals, I don't think there are any now that are active.

Pinnacle Campus did at one point before Austin Community College purchased it. It was originally a commercial office tower and even had a private residence on the top floor.

The other one is the Southfield Building, which was a commercial office tower. It had and still does have a helipad on the roof, but it's not in use to my knowledge. Austin Independent School District purchased it a couple of years ago and recently finished renovating it for their HQ.

It's the only non-hospital property I can think of that still has a helipad on its roof.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Au...!4d-97.7430608

Ah, thank you for the response! Wasn't sure with the mess that can be austin traffic if some of these executives would rather utilize helicopters from their buildings to get to the airport faster or where ever they might be going.

[We vs us]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/healt...rus/index.html

So: we have two outstanding vaccine candidates so far -- both of which have 90%+ efficacy, and are already in production.

According to Fauci, who is still probably the best source we have on this type of thing -- vaccinations will begin in late December with at risk populations, and then

"I think that everybody else will start to get vaccinated towards the end of April," Fauci said. "And that will go into May, June, July. It will take a couple of months to do."

This is obviously amazing news for all kinds of reasons, but I'm interested in thinking through what next August and Everything After will look like for development trends. Do people return to offices? All at once or slowly? Will WFH remain? What's left of bars and restaurants by that time, knowing that we're also in a horrific COVID spike now that's uncontained and could rage all winter?

Given that the vaccines are so crazy-effective . . . will it all eventually be like this never happened? Kind of unthinkable to even say that, but . . . here we are.

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by We vs us

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/healt...rus/index.html

So: we have two outstanding vaccine candidates so far -- both of which have 90%+ efficacy, and are already in production.

According to Fauci, who is still probably the best source we have on this type of thing -- vaccinations will begin in late December with at risk populations, and then



This is obviously amazing news for all kinds of reasons, but I'm interested in thinking through what next August and Everything After will look like for development trends. Do people return to offices? All at once or slowly? Will WFH remain? What's left of bars and restaurants by that time, knowing that we're also in a horrific COVID spike now that's uncontained and could rage all winter?

Given that the vaccines are so crazy-effective . . . will it all eventually be like this never happened? Kind of unthinkable to even say that, but . . . here we are.

Jesus, I'm sure we all have realized that everyone has their own prophecy as to what COVID will bring to human existence. I see the above timeline as most realistic. I am feeling confident traveling back to my home in Italy around late June or July....my hope is that this has made us view pathogens and biology in a very different way--normalizing wearing a simple mask when one has the flu.

I really believe in 2029 we will look back at this year with a heavy heart and see what sacrifices we needed to make to advance. We've all adjusted and adapted so much...In the end, I think this has brought the world together a bit more. Much MUCH brighter days are coming within this decade. Trust me.

[H2O]

What is unknown is how long the vaccines will be effective. There is some evidence of patients getting reinfected months after recovery. The vaccines might end up being more of a suppression than a cure, and we will need frequent vaccines to keep another pandemic at bay. Much like how we now routinely get annual influenza vaccines. Covid-19 is now endemic in the human population just like influenza following the pandemic of 1919.

[mercury6]

Originally Posted by H2O

What is unknown is how long the vaccines will be effective. There is some evidence of patients getting reinfected months after recovery. The vaccines might end up being more of a suppression than a cure, and we will need frequent vaccines to keep another pandemic at bay. Much like how we now routinely get annual influenza vaccines. Covid-19 is now endemic in the human population just like influenza following the pandemic of 1919.

Booster shots