Austin, what if... - Page 2

the Genral · #21 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 6:29 AM**

#13
original photo by LoneStarMike from this forum Modified by the Genral

I really like the way this one came out. I don't always have to add 50 floors to my mods. I kept this conservative. Wells Fargo has the bones to make this height mod very reasonable and quite nice. I was hoping to raise the roof on Fargo's stubby neighbor and I'm amazed I was able to pull it off with so little to work with in the original pic. I took some liberties on this one and raised the bow glass feature to near the top. I really like the sun's reflection. This is a much better look for this building.

#14
original photo by lextx97
modified by the Genral

I'm doing a before and after on this one because I wanted everyone to see how much improvement Capitol Tower would be with added floors. Watch it go from a ridiculous blight on our skyline to something less horrible. This is the building they wanted to put this hidious wing on top. I really hate this piece of crap. From this angle it looks like a topless Dalek from Doctor Who. There's no real architectural form to this POS, its dominated by parking levels. I remember they added reflective glass to the parking space to improved the already dreadful overall appearance. How does something like this get approved in the designing stages and then get built? btw, I added some floors to the bldg on congress not because it needed it, but for SAG's.

Downtown_Austin · #22 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 2:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

#3
original photo by Priller from this forum modified by the Genral killercorn on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92039026@N00/2264376332/

OUTSTANDING. This is a great visualization of dreaming big. Something I'd like to see more of from Austin developers, architects, and city council.

the Genral · #23 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 5:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armybrat

The Zilker tree?

photo by LoneStarMike modified by the Genral

Currently::

Supersized:

the Genral · #24 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 5:51 PM**

#15
photo by Lonestarmike Modifies by the Genral

I could live in this building.
/

#16 and #17
Photo by LoneStarMike modified by the Genral

What if the W was all hotel?

How 'bout all condos?

#18
photo by LoneStarMike modified by the Genral

What if the Hilton was all hotel and no condos? This is one of my favorite mods.

#19
Photo by mopacs modified by the Genral
This is an example of leave it the f alone. One Congress Plaza is fine the way it is. I worked on it for over an hour trying to make it bigger and still look good and all I have accomplished is making it look like a Frankenstein transformer. All future mods will NOT include One Congress. On the other hand, the Radisson Hotel mod came out fine. Prime site for bat veiwing. Btw, cloudy skies are not my friend.

the Genral · #25 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 8:59 PM**

Wow!! Over 500 views in less than 48 hours! THANK YOU

I corrected the Hilton Garden Inn Photo acknowledgement and credited Downtown Austin for the original. I'll gladly keep the pics coming until we all get burned out on them. I still have a ton to post. Any requests?

KevinFromTexas · #26 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 9:03 PM**

Maybe the UT Tower and Dobie Center?

Spaceman · #27 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 9:24 PM**

Enough.... That's not the way the city looks..Wouldn't it make more sense to display planned buildings into the existing skyline? Why not do NYC and insert the World Trade Center to enhance their skyline...Sadly it is gone....Don't want to be a drag to this board but that's the way I feel.

the Genral · #28 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 9:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spaceman

Enough.... That's not the way the city looks..Wouldn't it make more sense to display planned buildings into the existing skyline? Why not do NYC and insert the World Trade Center to enhance their skyline...Sadly it is gone....Don't want to be a drag to this board but that's the way I feel.

That's not what this particular thread is about Spaceman, sorry you don't like it. Just trying to have some fun while waiting for things to pick up again. I try not to take everything so seriously...works for me. Besides, there are plenty of other threads in this forum that already do what you want.

the Genral · #29 Posted **Jul 19, 2011, 9:51 PM**

I adjusted your seat for you Kevin. Now you can see over the trees.

#20 Thanks to Mopacs photo from this forum

This is now one of my favorite mods. I didn't need to raise this one much for it to be at its proper height, again, Imo.

#21 Photo from LoneStarMike from this forum modified by the Genral

The extra height on this Holiday Inn add-on would have offered great views of the lake, and the wonderful traffic.

migol24 · #30 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 3:31 AM**

Hey, congrats Genral! You made it on DAB!

http://downtownaustinblog.org/

the Genral · #31 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 4:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by migol24

Hey, congrats Genral! You made it on DAB!

http://downtownaustinblog.org/

Thanks Jude, that's really cool.

Heck, I thought maybe 10 or 20 people would take a look at this thread at best. I think we're almost 700 in the 1st 48 hours! WooHoo!
Thanks migol24.

the Genral · #32 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 5:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Maybe the UT Tower and Dobie Center?

Photo by Mopacs from this forum, modified by the Genral
I did a before and after on this for easy comparison.
At first I resisited tampering with the UT Tower, since it is such a historic bldg and fine the way it is, and I didn't want to offend Longhorn folk, even though I like the Aggies, but then I thought, ah hell, why not

The mod height kind of reminds me of the Cap bldg in Baton Rouge, tall and slender, so not unrealistic. Dobie looks better taller to me.

the Genral · #33 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 6:29 AM**

Photo by Priller from this forum modified by the Genral

I always wondered what these two block busting bldgs would have looked like taller (which is exactly why this thread exists). I think they are the CSC or something like that bldgs. Its real difficult finding a suitable photo I can work with to demonstrate this so I had to settle on the model Priller posted. Because of the massive footprints, I think the height I chose is the most asthetic and practical, but I wouldn't want to be in the condo behind them. On second glance, they look like cubes now.

austlar1 · #34 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 8:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

Photo by Priller from this forum modified by the Genral

I always wondered what these two block busting bldgs would have looked like taller (which is exactly why this thread exists). I think they are the CSC or something like that bldgs. Its real difficult finding a suitable photo I can work with to demonstrate this so I had to settle on the model Priller posted. Because of the massive footprints, I think the height I chose is the most asthetic and practical, but I wouldn't want to be in the condo behind them. On second glance, they look like cubes now.

Now I understand why they were so determined to keep those two buildings fairly low. Taller buildings really would have cluttered up the river front and blocked the views from back in downtown or views of downtown from south of the river. I think they look better in their present size. Also I think Frost Bank, which I always wanted to be taller, looks much better in its original size than the taller one you made. The crown loses something when sitting atop that taller structure. That is just my opinion. I am enjoying your project here BTW,so I am not criticizing your undertaking,which is proving to be kind of educational. I just think some of the buildings look best in their original form.

KevinFromTexas · #35 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 2:27 PM**

Yeah, those two buildings on either side of City Hall would have ruined the skyline being taller. Of course they would have put the tower section on the north side of the blocks and had a podium section just like they did for Ashton. That would have looked odd having those three lined up creating a sheer wall along the river broken up by the low slung city hall.

Besides, we'll probably see some buildings like that at Green where they'll have to put the tower sections on the north sides of the blocks and have the podium levels taking up the south sides of the blocks.

the Genral · #36 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 2:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by austlar1

Now I understand why they were so determined to keep those two buildings fairly low. Taller buildings really would have cluttered up the river front and blocked the views from back in downtown or views of downtown from south of the river. I think they look better in their present size. Also I think Frost Bank, which I always wanted to be taller, looks much better in its original size than the taller one you made. The crown loses something when sitting atop that taller structure. That is just my opinion. I am enjoying your project here BTW,so I am not criticizing your undertaking,which is proving to be kind of educational. I just think some of the buildings look best in their original form.

I agree austlar. I've been here since the 80's and whine all the time about a lot of the buildings and decided to see if I could improve on the designs just by adding height. In some cases adding floors definately made the buildings look better, in other cases obviously not. By modifying the pics we can get some visual answers to our couriousity of what if... it seems there are many courious forumers who thought about this also. I may try varying heights in Frost to see if there is an aesthetic middle ground, but height, maybe not as much, would have slenderized the main tower and given it more elegance instead of the stockiness I think it has from at least one or two sides. I'm glad you like the "projects". I find them both enlightening and somewhat educational too.
I'll keep this thread alive as long as there is interest. Suggestions / photos would be appreciated. Comments both negative and positive is also appreciated. These are basically just my takes and not everyone has to agree with them. I do tend to add the ridiculous from time to time to keep it entertaining. For example, the duck, bike, semi, and the pic Downtown Austin chose for his DAB, of which I'm flattered. That pic is obviously a grossly oversized exaggeration of DT making my point that we need height in order to compete with other fantastic skylines in other cities. Isn't that what most of us want here? I'm not trying to reinvent Austin, or showcase upcoming projects, there are other threads for that, I'm just sharing my thoughts and renditions. There's no question that there were some architecturally bad decisions made in Austin in the past, and we can only hope substandard designs are a thing of the past. Maybe someone who matters will take notice.
Better height, better designs, better materials, better ingrediants,... Papa John's.

the Genral · #37 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 6:40 PM**

photo by OfCourse from this forum modified by the Genral

And now we come to the Hilton Garden Inn.
Before and after for your comparison.
Half garage, half hotel. On the modification I did eliminate the garage and changed the lower facade to be hotel rooms. Because of the angle, I had to do each window one at a time and there is only six per row instead of 7 due to technical difficulties. Other than that, this is my first practical mod that could actually be done to improve the appearance of this bland box. I did my usual impossible mod, turning the whole building into hotel rooms and losing the garage before adding the cosmetics which actually could be done, and I regret this move but its too late to change that now. I may be doing some doable mods soon. I'd used a dark blue / greenish glass veneer on parts of the sides of the hotel, and paint the top portion a dark blue getting rid of that ugly green. The verticle glass veneer I think would tie in the garage and hotel floors better and slenderize the boxey shape a little.

photo by Mopacs modified by the Genral

The UT Campus...there's only so much land to expand on so going 'up' seems like the most logical thing to do, but the neighbors surrounding the campus really don't want tall buildings directly next to them so they'll have to endure lowrise sprawl. I "solved" some student housing and on campus classroom and admin space
by raising a few buildings including the Tower. I'm guessing that since UT can control the student body growth by limiting enrollment, it's not likely we'll ever see anything pop up as tall as my mods, but this is what tall buildings would look like on and around the campus.

the Genral · #38 Posted **Jul 20, 2011, 11:17 PM**

This is a quick pic of Frost compared to similar but taller buildings in Cleveland on the left, Charlotte in the middle and the modified Frost on the right. The quality sucks because I did this on the fly. I think the biggest argument against the height I put on Frost is the size of the crown . So yes, compared to the other 2, the crown is too small for the height I put on it.

the Genral · #39 Posted **Jul 21, 2011, 12:11 AM**

Photo by Mopacs from this forum

Let's take a quick look at the APD Headquarters. I've been in this building once before but I honestly don't remember why. But its just as bad on the inside as it is on the outside. I think Chief Acevedo wanted the Chief job in Dallas just to get away from this beauty. The Dallas PD headquarters is much nicer. So looking at this chunk of bldg to me looks as inviting as an above ground bomb shelter. It looks thick and dark and crowded, which is why if you haven't noticed I gave them a couple extra floors. I don't know if there are plans for a new HQ, but I say raze this sucker and relocate it somewhere on the eastside of the highway.

I was originally going to just chop the top off of the Austonian and then accept all the hate mail I'd end up getting. Instead I decided to give three examples and let you decide which way is the best. After looking at the 3 examples, I decided the original is just waaaay too tall, I don't like it. I know it adds height, and you know I'm big on that, and it has the weight room, observation area, and whoopie, I'll never get to use them, so I don't care about losing them. When looking at the Austonian on the right, something is definately missing, it sort of looks unfinished, maybe because we're use to that big lump on top. But the middle one looks pretty good to me.
We still have the roof light. AND, it would not be physically impossible to do, just really, really difficult. And keep in mind that the topper is more of a functional feature rather than a decorative feature like on the Frost tower. Here function trumped beauty imo.

austlar1 · #40 Posted **Jul 21, 2011, 7:10 AM**

You should have a crack at the buildings lining Barton Springs across from the Long Center garage and the Palmer Events Center. Let those NIMBYS up on the hill see what they're missing. I always feel like that stretch should be lined with medium tall(20 stories or so)buildings both office and residential.