AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[Meagan0803]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it has a couple of sketches of the proposed supertall commercial building on the same block as the new Travis County courthouse at the "farmer's market" parking lot.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/...urting-change/

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Meagan0803

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it has a couple of sketches of the proposed supertall commercial building on the same block as the new Travis County courthouse at the "farmer's market" parking lot.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/...urting-change/

Thanks for posting...these sketches depict the largest of the proposals for what "could" be built on that site.

[MichaelB]

The lot at MLK and COlorado ( behind Cambridge) sold this weekend at auction from the state for 4.2 M. It was sold to an LLC that was apparently formed for this purchase. Does anyone have any info on who this is and the inteneded use?

[East7thStreet]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

The lot at MLK and COlorado ( behind Cambridge) sold this weekend at auction from the state for 4.2 M. It was sold to an LLC that was apparently formed for this purchase. Does anyone have any info on who this is and the inteneded use?

That seems like a healthy price for that size of a lot. Hopefully that portends a high-rise.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by East7thStreet

That seems like a healthy price for that size of a lot. Hopefully that portends a high-rise.

Nope cant be a highrise. 60' limit. Cap view corridor. The state sold it trying to tell investors they could apply for a vairance, but that is one of the most protected views in the city..... UT to the Capitol. That's not happening. The state was considering passing a law that exempted state land from those laws, but that did not happen. Perhaps if it had that could have conveyed. So this land is subject to the CVC laws. ( thank "god")

So... having said that. We are very curious what the use could be.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Nope cant be a highrise. 60' limit. Cap view corridor. The state sold it trying to tell investors they could apply for a vairance, but that is one of the most protected views in the city..... UT to the Capitol. That's not happening. The state was considering passing a law that exempted state land from those laws, but that did not happen. Perhaps if it had that could have conveyed. So this land is subject to the CVC laws. ( thank "god")

So... having said that. We are very curious what the use could be.

You do know that the state can still pass laws like that just because it leans heavily Republican and you know how the state loves to pass Austin bashing laws. I agree with you that these corridors should be protected, they are the main reason why Austin now has some fairly tall highrises in the first place, to lessen their impact would be bad for Austin IMO.

[nixcity]

and 60 feet isnt all that bad for that area

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by nixcity

and 60 feet isnt all that bad for that area

yeah I agree.... depending on the plate height you could squeese 6 floors in....more likely 5 or 4. Best guess is that it will be office and hopefully retail on the ground. We need more things facing MLK.

Who ever bought it did so with a plan in place. The LLC was formed for the purchase..... so we shall see. !

[BevoLJ]

On Tuesday we can all go visit with the 4 groups hoping to get to design the new Waller Creek downtown. The meet and greet will be Tuesday, May 15th, @ 5:30 @ the Blanton Museum.


Meet the Waller Creek Project designers
15 hours ago - KVUE-TV Austin 3:17 | 130 views

When the Waller Creek Project is complete it will be one of the biggest small creek renovations in the nation. Four designers will soon submit their ideas for this downtown project, and next week the public has a chance to meet them. Stephanie McDonald is the executive director of the Waller Creek Conservancy. She spoke to KVUE about the project. The Waller Creek Conservancy hosts Meet Your Designers Night next Tuesday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Blanton Museum of Art.

...

Watch Video: http://finance.yahoo.com/video/austi...-29270249.html

[Jdawgboy]

Im kinda shocked at the lack of interest for city elections on this forum, I would expect everybody here being fairly interested but I guess I was wrong. Luckily all the incumbents won but what is disturbing is it was the lowest voter turnout in Austin city election history. Despite the problems our city faces due to still having a system where every council member is voted city wide instead of districts, I still don't understand the lack of interest from the majority of our citizens. Even people who move here from other areas may not know or get interested in city politics and they don't participate, but they are Austin citizens now so they should care about what happens with this city. This problem is serious and we need to deal with it. Because if we don't it will get worse and will eventually come down to just a couple of thousand votes to decide who leads a city of over 800,000 people and growing rapidly. We are not far from it now.

[BevoLJ]

Agree Jdawg. I hate that I can't vote in the Austin elections. I would for sure. But even this time around I found it hard to get into the elections. Austin is just doing so well there really didn't seem like much need to change. And it never seemed as if anything was going to change in the elections.

I think they REALLY need to do away with the May elections and only have then in Nov. However I imagine the NIMBYs like having them in May. It is likely much better for them, even though it didn't help them this time around even with the low turn out.

Glad the old council is still in a job!

Here is something on the new Children's Museum. I am sad to see it leave DT. But it will have much more room and I am very happy they are going to expand their activities and exhibits from ages up to 6 to ages up to 11.

Children's museum unveils design for $20 million building at Mueller
By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 12:51 a.m. Sunday, May 13, 2012
Published: 12:26 a.m. Sunday, May 13, 2012

Leaders of the Austin Children's Museum on Saturday unveiled the design for a new $20 million facility at a prominent site at the Mueller mixed-use development northeast of downtown.

Museum leaders also announced that $11.5 million has been raised for the 40,000-square-foot building.

"The new location is much more accessible to the entire Central Texas community," museum director Mike Nellis said.

The nonprofit announced that it had plans to move to the Mueller development in 2008. It leases its current facility at 201 Colorado St. in downtown Austin, an area that's seen an explosion of retail shops, restaurants and bars and put an ever-increasing demand on nearby parking.

Nellis said plans for the facility will include free parking for museum visitors as part of the planned Town Center, which Catellus Development Corp. is spearheading as part of Mueller's ambitious transformation.

The new building, designed by California architecture firm Koning Eizenberg, will have about 13,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space along with classrooms, a food service area, a gift shop and a nursing area.

The surrounding grounds will feature outdoor exhibits and a picnic area.

The museum purchased the site for the new building from Catellus for nearly $900,000, Nellis said.

...

With the new building, Nellis said, the museum will expand its mission to include science, technology, math, art and engineering activities and exhibits for children through age 11. Currently, the museum's offerings are intended for children through age 6.
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Read More: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...type=rss_local

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[NYC_Longhorn]

With the Children Museum moving.... I respectfully resubmit the rumor of.... TWIN AUSTONIANS! Everybody sing!!

"I... love.... towers sproutin' like trees... cranes swaying in the breeze... a world with no NIMBY's..... and Twiiiiiiiins!!!!!!" :-)

[Jdawgboy]

Love it!

Your right BevoLJ about the NIMBYS prefering May becuse they know they can affect the elections as the come out in large numbers, thats what happened to Randi Shade when by all rights she should have won a second term. They didnt get the chance this time around. But as you said things are doing well for the city but that still doesnt mean people dont need to vote. Everybody assumes that and the NIMBYS take over council. This election should have wiped Shea clean out but it didnt, she ran a nasty campaign and for that fact we dodged a bullet, barely.

[Syndic]

Well that children's museum looks positively bland.

I don't know about y'all, but Mueller has been a big disappointment to me, starting with the big box stores they put in there. Then, all the unnecessary parks. There's very little mixed-use. It's all basically suburbs with moderately more density. It's not like you can just walk to a corner store there and buy a gallon of milk. I'd prefer a bunch of little stores to one big H-E-B store. And the plans just keep changing.

It sucks because it's such good, vast real estate and it had/has so much potential. I still think a parcel of land should be saved for a new special events center to replace the Frank Erwin Center, which could be torn down and developed. Either that, or a NASL/MLS stadium for the Austin Aztex.

Admittedly, seeing Houston open their stadium yesterday made me a little bit jealous.

• Video Link

[ahealy]

is anyone going to The Blanton at 5:30 for the waller creek "meet the designers" thing? I'll be workin :/

[BevoLJ]

I have a dinner meeting.

I really REALLY want to go though!

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by ahealy

is anyone going to The Blanton at 5:30 for the waller creek "meet the designers" thing? I'll be workin :/

you are always "workin".

Take good notes. I expect a full report. I'm skipping walking over cause it's just thier "vote for me" dog and pony show!

( stop by on way back)

[JoninATX]

Lol.. I was going to go but something came up.

[JoninATX]

Working on the 11th floor of the Hyatt Austin



Aross from Amli on W. 3rd & Lavaca.

[MichaelB]

RE: The picture above at 3rd and Lavaca.. That is going to be a Steak House. I am so curious what it will look like when done. They have blown out the roof and are obviously going up in some way! Hum.... can't wait to see.