Austin | Indeed Tower (Block 71) | 542 Feet | 36 Floors | COMPLETE
 

I thought we already had a thread for Block 71, but I guess we've just been posting about it in the update thread. I'll start one since there are at least two proposals. This latest proposal is from Minguell-McQuary Architecture and looks to be 36-stories.

http://i.imgur.com/LsEGBHG.png
http://i.imgur.com/CcHG8pe.png
http://www.minguell-mcquary.com/block71/

Here's a re-post of deerhoof's photos of the Nelsen Partners proposal taken at the offices of Nelsen Partners.

https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/a...2952c37d22fa6a
https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/a...75167d0726c928
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2710

Please let the Nelsen Partners design be chosen. That other rendering is hideous. We can't afford to lose all of our unencumbered lots to stubby short buildings in the 30 floor range. Plus it looks like a strange version of the W.

Only thing that rendering's missing is an Airstream trailer on one of those exposed balconies.

I was about to edit my post to include 500 W 2nd lol

If the W and 500 W 2nd had a baby, that would be the outcome...:sly:

The only neat thing would be if they really included a forest within the highrise complex.

I'm not a fan of that first one. The tower portion is too close to design of the W, and those recessed windows make it look like a parking garage. That portion of the building seriously looks like a re-purposed parking garage. I rarely say this about buildings, but this one is ugly.

My biggest objection to the Minguell-McQuary proposal is that it isn't the Nelson proposal. What a terrible loss it would be, to not build what was previously envisioned, for which we got our hopes up. How can anyone not want the M-M building? What's wrong with our species that we would potentially pass on such an opportunity? I'm in a grief-stricken panic over this. [That might be a slight exaggeration.]

It looks like Trammell Crow is the winner. Paywall alert. :yuck:

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...w-life-as.html

Happy about this quote from the ABJ article linked above, but I do hope they keep the entire building and not just the facade:

"The system has asked the company to maintain the south and west facades of Claudia Taylor Johnson Hall at the corner of Lavaca and Sixth, which was originally built as the city's seventh post office in 1914 and is named after President Lyndon Johnson's wife.

Otherwise, most of the block is likely to be demolished — including a parking garage, a nine-story tower and a plaza with a water fountain that hasn't run since a drought started affecting the city about 10 years ago."

Also this: "Tames says the redevelopment of Block 71, coupled with ground-floor retail in its new OneUTSystem tower, will better link that stretch of central downtown to entertainment districts to the east and west." It sounds like UT is actually making an attempt to be a good downtown citizen.

Any guesses on which design they will use? I'm crossing my fingers for the Nelson Partners one.

I wonder if this will get off the ground during this cycle. Buildings could be razed in 2017 at least.

My guess is that it will be something completely different from the either of the two proposals we know about.

The snippet from the article made it sound like it would be multiple buildings. I just hope that doesn't mean two 400 footers on the same lot. I'd rather see a single taller more slender tower than two.

Someone other than the ABJ and their pay wall finally has the story. No building specifics yet, this is still a work in progress:

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news...ntown-b/ns6Nk/

I'm more concenred that CTJ hall and the pocket park to the side remain in tack.
We will not affect the design.
Can affect the protection of CTJ and the park.
Debate away on the design!
I will prefer A-A because it repsects that history of CTJ hall and the public space and I think it is actully interesting and has potential. I like the depth in the surfaces as well.

The lease will require them (Trammell) to preserve (at least) the south and west façade of the Claudia Taylor Johnson Hall. The plaza, however, is not protected in the lease.

This also mentions a new energy engineering building on campus.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...gineering.html

A site location map was posted to the city's FTP site.

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...0Blk_PLANS.pdf

Based on the info in Kevin's link, there will be two towers.  Considering the info below from the permit filing and the size of the site, we're looking at a ~30-story apartment building and a ~40-story office building.

From the filing: 

"The Block 71 project will be developed on approximately 76,174 square feet (1.7487 acres) located at the property bound by Lavaca Street, Colorado Street, 6th Street and 7th Street in Austin, Travis County, Texas. The development will consist of high rise buildings with 236-unit apartment building, 665,000 square foot office building, and two (2) restaurants with on-site parking garage and utilities."

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...216_Agenda.pdf

For those wondering, that comes from this document. There's more:

"Est. Construction Date: 06/01/2018 - 06/01/2020"

Well now we are getting somewhere. Potentially our first 40 story office tower is a pretty big deal. It won't be a 700 footer like we were hoping for (love the first rendering), but that would surely put the roof top of the tower into the 450 to 500 foot range. Frost is 33 floors, Kevin has better stats so correct me if I'm wrong but the 33rd floor sits right around the 400 foot mark. A 40 floor office tower would surely be at least 450 feet.

Less impressed with the 30 story counterpart. We just have so many in that range now as well as soon to be. 30 floors seems to be our defacto limit with many of the new towers.