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Proposed 30-story office tower could alter downtown skyline
Austin American Statesman
By Shonda Novak | Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 05:30 PM

Taller!!!!, would love to see that taller, love the design just make it 10 floors taller.

I'm wondering if this is an L shaped tower.

I don't think so. It is only on the bottom two lots on the Colorado side of the block. The two bottom lots that are on the Congress (next to Manuel's)side are still parking. There is a little ally that breaks that block in half.

... Bevo, the lot shape has nothing to do with my point. Look at the rendering. Does it not strike you that this could be an L-shaped tower and we're seeing the outside of the L?

I think he meant maybe we are looking at the bottom of the "L" and it's actually just two slender rectangles splintered together.

Exactly

Also, the title of the thread is misspelled. It's Colorado not Colorodo.

Too bad its only 30. Isn't that the height of everything else over there? No dimension.....

I agree, would like to see an office tower more comparible to the Austonion.

If something gets built on the parking lot fronting Congress, it will sure have an impact on the light and views on the east side of this proposed building. I wonder whether this design takes that into consideration? I guess we would all like to see a rendering of the eastern facade for this baby. If it is "L" shaped that might create a light well on the eastern side in the event something gets built in front of it. I seem to rember the proposed hotel was only going to occupy a quarter of the block, so I guess that would leave the other quarter fronting Congress open for development. I wish this thing was going up on Congress.

Maybe a nice mid rise for that parking lot.

I too, would love to have a taller (and skinnier) building on this site. As it is more expensive to build taller, the numbers must support a taller building (i.e., the margin must be the same or better).

Furthermore, let’s not jump too high with this “building boom” potential just yet…it is just that…”potential.” And the basic definition of “potential” is simply; the proposed has not been accomplished.

Do not get me wrong. I was born here in Austin and am very interested in making it a “World Class” city (culture, architecture, food, entertainment, etc.).

However, not all developers (at least here) really care about that…as they should be. They are considering how much money they can make on each and every project. This is why Tom Stacy has not “started” construction of his proposal. It cost much more, and there is far more risk in developing a site than preparing it for development. Stacy’s site has the highest density approvals of any site in Central Texas. He has simply increased the value of his property. In addition, let’s not forget that he owned the site where Frost Bank is now located. He did the same thing with that site as he has done with his property at Sixth & Congress…obtained all of the required entitlements to build such a building as Frost prior to selling the site to Cousins. The reason we should feel “warm” about the Sixth & Congress project is because it has yet to come onto the market…at least publically.

You are right GoldenBoot, as far as I know T Stacy is still planning on building something eventually, we just do not know the scope of the project. I am looking forward to the day we do know more.

As far as this tower is concerned we will see what happens with the final rendering. They did a story on KXAN at 5 about it and the spokesperson with Cousins said they hope to get started on construction this October. Of course the story also found somebody who complained about not enough parking Downtown (which is just not true), she never goes down there, (oh well...) She complained that she does not want Austin to be like Houston or Dallas but its people like her that live away from the core and don't go Downtown that cause a lot of the congestion problems we have. In order for Austin to be different, we need to grow up, not out. My feeling is that lady was talking about highrises but fact is its low level sprawl that causes congestion and Houston and Dallas are filled with Sprawl in all directions. We may not be able to control what happens with our suburbs but we can control what we do within the city limits and we are heading in the right direction as long as we continue to see Downtown grow up.

i'm just getting tired of those types of people that it's not even worth it taking into consideration what they have to say.... unless, of course, it's anything new and worth considering.... but it's not. texans, for the most part, especially the one's who live in suburban neighborhoods don't know what "urbanization" is. they think they know... but they don't. they think that just by building buildings causes sprawl... i dunno how they come to that. i don't know what makes them rationalize that what austin is experiencing is the same thing that has happened in houston or dallas. i guess they just don't understand the dynamics of it... and the differences between san francisco and los angeles. they think those types of cities are exactly the same... and then there are cities like atlanta, houston and dallas and that austin is following in those same trends. that's simply not the case in any shape or form. there's like no possible way to rationalize that.

I saw that news story, and just like in any development story, the local media found a local who bemoans development. These people cannot expect to be the last person moving to Austin. NIMBYs have to wake up and realize that a developer conceived of their home and the place where they work at some point in the past.

Very true indeed.

What is the real constraint here?
Austin Contrarian
Chris Bradford

I only count 27 floors in the rendering. I'm guessing it'll be around 350 feet tall. That'll make it our 2nd tallest office building, but today that would be Austin's 11th tallest building, and possibly the 26th tallest in the city in a few years time. Love the design, though. Duda/Paine is designing it. They also did Frost.

I'm not exactly surprised it's not going to be very tall. It would mean blocking the views from The Austonian. And I'm not surprised it has some fancy crown either since the light pollution would also interfere with residents in The Austonian. I am wondering how they'll light the crown so that it shows up, but isn't a distraction.

Frost Bank Tower - 33 floors, 515'
One Congress Plaza - 30 floors, 398'
One American Center - 32 floors, 397'