AUSTIN | 500 West 2nd Street | 400 FEET - 28 FLOORS | COMPLETE
 

The address is 500 West 2nd Street

https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11128724
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Tower crane plans. There will be two cranes. This says the cranes will top out at 547 and 480 feet.
ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...rane_PLANS.pdf

I actually goofed the first time I read the building elevations because it was hard to read the print. The ground level elevation is 466 feet, but I read it as 468 feet. So it's actually 2 feet taller than I had read it. So it turns out this building's official height will be 399 feet 6 inches. So rounding it up you get 400 feet.

Here are the correct heights starting from the listed 466 feet above sea level elevation:

ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/ATD_AULCC/...20LA_PLANS.pdf

I'm disappointed there's not a '400' smiley in the built in smilies.

So instead I'm using this
http://www.gandjtissues.co.uk/images...ing%20film.png

UGH! This crappy building won't even be a true 400 footer. What kinda bullsh!t is that?!

Forget being stuck in the 400 to 500 foot range, we are going backwards. Circa 1980s

Like I've always said, if a catering-size roll of cling wrap unfurled from the architectural top is still unrolling by time it hits ground level, it belongs in Round Rock.

Latest renderings from http://www.gensler.com/projects/gree...-redevelopment:
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...Rendering2.png
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...rRendering.png
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...Rendering3.png
This one was out on "Tallest Under Construction Projects" for Austin, on Urban Planet (http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/in...ojects/page-19):
http://s.lnimg.com/photo/poster_1920...c864a95884.jpg
So - broad and squat but a little more interesting than previous versions. It also adds some much needed density, filling in some gaps in the skyline. I think we have enough blue glass, now - maybe we can start to see some color variation in the next batch of towers...

Hmmmmm, I wonder why this looks so familiar to me, as if another building going up will have a very similar side view...:rolleyes:

JWFairiott?

He's probably referring to the Fairmont. Oh..... now I get your use of "Fairiott." Nicely done. I didn't get it until I saw "Fairmont" as I typed it.

Yes, this is a disturbing and sad trend, we have a number of wall buildings going up that are all roughly the same height. It's going to look like a skyline full of glass dominoes. All these upright rectangles are going to further isolate the Austonian, which already sticks out like an NBA player on a women's softball team.

Nice

It's not a bad design really. That lattice structure coming off the facade is going to be completely different from anything we have so far. I also like the notches, and the crown is at least more interesting than the first design was. I like the notches, too.

Maybe in a few years we'll be getting nothing but 800 footers. That would be wild.

I like the design of the building in and of itself, but am concerned about the look of the skyline around that area. It's such a prominent location; the 2 greenwater towers combined just look awkward to me and don't play well with the waterfront. I've often been pleasantly surprised by how things look in reality vs. the renderings, but I'm feeling pretty confident about not liking the last big open space facing the lake being taken up by these boxes standing at right angles to one another.

It's an okay design. I wish the street-level portion was less foreboding, unwelcoming, alienating, monolithic, etc. It doesn't seem to fit with the whole "2nd Street District" culture. But that's typically what you get with office buildings; some generic, minimally-disruptive "upscale" restaurant non-entity and that's it. No real retail tenants to provide value to the city; those are too much of a hassle, I guess. And nothing any normal Austinite would patronize. In truth, this building doesn't really provide any value to the city at all other than the jobs it creates and the taxes collected from it. It's a vacuum. None of us regular people are going to grow to love and appreciate this building. I doubt any of us will ever even enter the premises. Contrast that with Block 1 which will have a multitude of uses and tenants. There are various different reasons we could foresee us ending up in that building. It will be lively and interesting; a worthy addition to downtown Austin.

But, to me, Block 23 is pretty indicative of the type of project that turns downtowns into ghost towns. Everybody's gone by 5 or 6 o'clock except for a small waitstaff and a small, economically-privileged restaurant clientele, which is gone by 10:30-11:00. Then, it's just a big hulking beast for people to walk by, be mildly creeped out by, and subtly resent for being a sterile husk of corporate culture rather than something valuable to the community.

Think about all of the office buildings in Austin and tell me which ones add to Austin's culture. Few do. Most follow the same basic archetype and do nothing but fill up space after sundown. They're what occupied downtown Austin in an era when most of downtown Austin itself was a ghost town. We gotta be careful about how many buildings like this we allow. It would be one thing if it were big, but it's really not.

Looking at this picture, I take some small solace knowing that Block 24 will be condos and very tall. Still, I wish these developers would think more outside the box when it comes to Austin (we expect to be treated differently than other cities) and give the people something they can patronize more often.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/...rRendering.png

" and subtly resent for being a sterile husk of corporate culture rather than something valuable to the community"

???

There will be a lot of jobs in that building. I don't see how someone could resent jobs and tax payers.

HUGELY disappointed by the new render. The old render was much, much better. It had interesting details and actually had presence. This building is just as boring as most of the other buildings going up right now. Gensler = snoozefest. It looks like the builder just cheaped out on the lowest bidder.

I would rather have 1/2 as many of the buildings under construction right now to get a few with height and a respectable architect / design.

/rant.

I wouldn't say that it's Gensler's fault. Afterall, the developers are the ones who sign off on the final design. The architect had to come up with what the developer needed.

Really? You're making me clarify that? Okay, pretend that I said "rather than something more than nearly imperceptibly valuable to the community". Very few people, relatively-speaking, will work in that building, and the tax the government gets from this isn't really going to be felt by the average person. It would be nice for it to be a place that's alive rather than dead 16 hours a day.

No, I don't blame the architects. I generally like Gensler. I blame the developer.

Please leave the sports analogies to me. Really Austin's skyline just has a great team with lots of athleticism, talent and potential. All we need is a solid big man to make us a contender. The Austonian is like a young Carlos Boozer or a Serge Ibaka type of big man, descent but not big enough to take us all the way. At least two or three more 700' would take us there, I think.

Always liked analogies, especially sport ones...good job...but as long as the office development continues to saturate the market with 400 footers, or less, I think it will take increased demand, lack of parcels to build on and someone with deep pockets and a matching ego before we see an office building 700' or taller. Someone who wants to brag about having the tallest office building in Austin. I'm hoping for a tall, slender office point tower like Cleveland has. Who knows...maybe it will happen:shrug:

Yeah....it sucks that we thought we were getting Dwight Howard in the Fairmont...but instead got a Glen "Big Baby" Davis instead. Hopefully the Block 24 condo tower turns out to be a Tim Duncan.