AUSTIN | Fairmont Hotel | 595 FEET/ SPIRE | 456 FEET/ROOF | 37 FLRS

[AusHou]

I love this design. Austin has some really sharp designs in buildings downtown and this may be the best.

[KevinFromTexas]

The Downtown Austin Commission approved this today. Basically it's an endorsement of the project.

They interviewed Gensler and got some more information about it. They said the building will function as two hotels and will have a skywalk connecting the building to the Austin Convention Center across the street.

And they just barely showed some more renderings of it. They said they wanted the building to be an architectural landmark in Austin. They said construction is supposed to start next year.

I still haven't gotten an email back, yet, about the building heights. I'll try for these guys tomorrow:

http://www.gensler.com/#aboutus/offices/32

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_s...#ixzz1Si2jVTF0

Plans for New Convention Center Underway

Updated: Wednesday, 20 Jul 2011, 10:51 PM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 20 Jul 2011, 10:51 PM CDT

The City of Austin has agreed to back a project for another convention center hotel downtown.

It will have more than 1,000 rooms and the plan is for it to be two hotels in one, a 4-star and a 5-star hotel. There would be 600-800 parking spaces which that area of downtown needs. The hotel will have two pools and plenty of restaurant and meeting space.

Architects behind the project want to work with the Waller Creek Commission on the plans and make the building an iconic piece of architecture.

The project should break ground in 2012 and is expected to be completed in two years.

[KevinFromTexas]

Screen shots from the Fox7 News cast.

This would be the view from the southwest. The podium levels at the base which would contain convention/meeting space face Cesar Chavez with the tower portion being on the north side of the block. From this image, it looks like they're planning green roofs for the whole building, even the very top of the tower.

[Mopacs]

Looks like there's plenty of momentum!

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...osed_conv.html

Developer of 2nd proposed convention hotel: ‘We’re doing it’

By Shonda Novak |
Thursday, July 21, 2011, 09:31 AM

The San Diego developer planning to build a $350 million convention high-rise hotel at Cesar Chavez and Red River downtown said his company will build the project even if a competing downtown convention hotel planned by White Lodging Services Corp. moves forward simultaneously...

[eburress]

How funny. Manchester can't get anything done out here in California (like so many others) so he decides to pick up his toys and head to Texas (like so many others) to build the projects that won't fly in stagnant California.

As far as this building is concerned, I really like it's height and general shape, but I really really really do not like it's design. It looks dated and it hasn't even been built yet. Hopefully these renderings have a LOT of refining left to do!

[shakman]

Austin is on fire!!! Recently Austin, TX was rated as the second best city to raise a family, an excellent city to do business and now this...

[KevinFromTexas]

This article says the hotel will be 45 to 50 floors. This article mentions it'll have 1,100 rooms and have at least 950,000 square feet.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...inglePage=true

Austin's second convention hotel is a go, developer says

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:19 p.m. Thursday, July 21, 2011
Published: 9:13 p.m. Thursday, July 21, 2011

The architect for Manchester Texas Financial Group's proposed 45- to 50-story hotel said the project has attracted serious interest from four potential operators: Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood , plus a fourth undisclosed operator.

"We're doing it," Douglas Manchester, founder and chairman of San Diego-based Manchester Financial Group, said after a city commission unanimously endorsed the 1,100-room hotel that his firm plans to build on land just east of the Convention Center along Waller Creek. "We're not here to paint."

Manchester executives said construction on the project could start in a year and take 25 to 30 months. It would have two hotels, with a single operator, under one roof — one of them a four-star hotel of about 30 stories, and above that a smaller, luxury hotel .

The project wouldn't require a zoning change. However, Manchester Texas will ask the city for 300,000 more square feet of building area than the 650,000 square feet currently allowed.

[Dale]

Hope waning for a new tallest then.

[kingkirbythe....]

http://outqnews.com/2011/07/19/san-d...has-been-sold/

Seems that Manchester doesn't own the Grand Hyatt in San Diego anymore.

[KevinFromTexas]

Ok, I got an email back this morning from someone at Gensler about the height. Some interesting info about it.

First, the heights.

It's planned to have 50 floors at this point, not 51 as I had counted.

It will be 600 feet to the very top of the roof and 554 feet to the main roof. The podium area, that is the lower section of the building that covers the whole block, it will be 105 feet tall.

She said there will be a "skydeck" on the 33rd floor at 375 feet above the street. So I guess maybe they're planning an observation deck of some kind.

I asked about the height of the spire, too, and she said at this point they're not sure if they'll keep the spire because the client is wanting a helipad. So that's interesting. It's unfortunate that the spire would go away, but that would be interesting to see helicopters landing atop the hotel. I'm assuming the new Formula 1 race track had something to do with this, since the track promoters were saying one of the preferred methods of transportation to and from the track would be helicopter ferries.

Anyway, if they keep the spire that would make the height of the building be easily over 700 feet tall. The spire seems to be about 15 floors tall.

[MightyYoda]

This should put it firmly between the Frost and Austonian in height. I agree with the F1 statement. It sounds like at least part of the hotel is going to be for the "high-rollers". Hopefully this finishing at about the same time as the Waller Creek Project will be the catalyst the area needs to start redeveloping.

[StoOgE]

At 550-600 feet tall, this will dominate the skyline, especially given it's location.

The spire would be nice, but the helipad will go a long way towards the hotel being able to get high prices during race week/SXSW/ACL/Etc. So I get it.

Get it started ASAP and we might see it ready for year 2 of the race.

My guess is the 33rd floor skydeck will likely be for a bar/resteraunt with a view. I can't see demand for an observation deck from 350-400 feet up.

[Jdawgboy]

600 feet is still good, we only have one building in the 600-700 foot range, so it will begin to help the skyline in that respect. I just hope either the T.Stacy or the CCB will give us a super tall...

[KevinFromTexas]

Basically the building will appear to have a 600 foot roof - and will have. I think the 554 foot height is talking about the main roof slab, and there's a screen that hides the mechanical equipment in a mechanical penthouse above the main roof. Somewhere in there would have to be a mechanical shed/building atop the main roof to support a helipad. So it'll appear to have a 600 foot high flat roof. With this building being as wide as it's planned to be, it's going to appear huge.

The building's going to appear much taller than Frost and 360. 360's roof is only 473 feet. And Frost's crown stops at 516 feet. So this will be a good 84 feet above Frost. By the way, the Frost Bank Tower's tallest tower crane was 600 feet tall.

The Austonian's 53rd floor is at 595 feet 2 inches above the street. The 54th floor is at 607 feet 5 inches. So this building's roof is going to come up between those two. The Austonian's main roof is at the 55th floor and is at 621 feet 11 inches. So this building will appear to be only about 2 floors below the main roof of The Austonian.

The views of this hotel from the north and south will be more impressive than that of The Austonian since it'll be about twice as wide.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...ts-zoning.html

Hotel gets zoning
Austin Business Journal by Cody Lyon, Staff writer
Date: Friday, November 18, 2011, 5:00am CST

Cody Lyon
Staff writer - Austin Business Journal

The Austin City Council gave preliminary approval during its Nov. 10 meeting for the developer of a proposed downtown hotel to build it higher.

Proponents of the Grand Hotel at Waller Creek, as it’s now called, would bring the city and the Waller Creek redevelopment plan a lot of money. The hotel would likely generate $4.1 million in property taxes, said Steve Drenner, a lawyer with Winstead PC who is representing Manchester Texas Financial Group LLC, which is developing the hotel.

[JoninATX]

http://utorange.wordpress.com/2012/0...ut-of-towners/

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

http://utorange.wordpress.com/2012/0...ut-of-towners/

According to that article "the hotel will be the city’s tallest building." That rendering also portends a major height increase. We may now be looking at something 700 roof and 800 spire.

[JACKinBeantown]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 700 spire and 600 roof. If there's a spire involved, always assume it's included in the building's official height (unfortunately). It's a hotel... it will have short floors. Nice addition to the city though.

[KevinFromTexas]

The architect told me 600 to the roof. So with the spire it'll probably be around 750 feet...if they keep it at 50 floors. I count 42 in that rendering, and one article had mentioned 45.