Austin | 305 S. Congress | 6 Towers - 215'/295'/365'/375'/445'/525' | Approved
 

It looks like there's some momentum to have the American-Statesman move from its South Congress digs. Apparently they're accepting offers for their property. This would open up 19 acres for redevelopment.

PDF plan
http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ai...aiab095036.pdf

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...available.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...long-lady.html

http://www.thesquarefoot.com/austin/...ront-location/

And now the American-Statesman's take on it. They even included a map of the area including their own property.

http://www.statesman.com/business/ci...h-2391224.html

The type of development I would expect there would be something that would benefit the whole community, maybe an aquarium as the article suggests. That would be an interesting and compatible use for the site, and it should interact with the bat viewing area near the bridge and have some connection to the hike & bike trail. They're even saying it'll connect some how to the future nearby urban rail stop at Riverside. Remember there's a plan to build a rail bridge across the river from either Brazos or San Jacinto Street to near the American-Statesman property. There could be the possibility of having a pedestrian walkway included with that bridge.

I would tend to be against much vertical development there. The property feels like something that should be used as a community type project. I do remember 427MM from the forum telling me once that the American-Statesman had air rights to build to 110 feet on their property.

Whatever happens, this is the east side of downtown's chance to get a shot in the arm for growth that most of the west side has already seen. It could also help to redevelop the rest of the empty lots south of the river. I remember someone posted recently that there's a planned 353,000 square foot project of some sort planned for the Runtex site at Riverside & South First.

It is amazing to think that about ten years ago the Stateman was just finishing up a major expansion of their facilty at Congress and Riverside. The newspaper business has changed so much since that time. Printing and distributing a major daily in Austin is no longer very profitable. They really are not going to need that operation in a few more years since whatever is left of the Statesman will mostly be an online presence.

^Yes, that's why it's important to only post excerpts of their articles here. Besides the legal issues, I'm not aware of any other local publication that focuses so heavily on urban developments.

Didn't they just finish another expansion too??

The Austin Business Journal does but its of course part of a larger national conglomerate but then again so is AAS being owned by Cox.


Would love to see an Aquarium there, that would help tie in a north/south line of visitor destinations from SoCo to the University area. I really wanted to attend the community imput session today but there is one more chance tomarrow.

An Aquarium is a WONDERFUL idea. OMG. There are no major aquariums in the United States focused specifically on Cichlids. These are a very large group of extremely colorful and interactive freshwater fish located generally in the African Rift Lakes, large African Rivers, the Amazon, and central America.

Ofcourse any aquarium is going to have to include a saltwater section, but having a freshwater aquarium devoted to Cichlidine biotopes would be an AMAZING tourist opportunity in this county. It would also draw multiple national conventions that are related to the Cichlid trade as well as wealthy investors from China, Japan, and southeast Asia. This is the PERFECT site for such a project.

I've left a more detailed comment here:

https://austintexas.granicusideas.co...8e59000100007b

You all should go add your own opinions.

We had a 55 gallon aquarium when I was a kid, and we had Cichlids in it. My parents had even bought some crawdads at the grocery store to eat, and we put a few in the tank. My parents actually caught and raised fish and sold them 30+ years ago.

I would love an aquarium there. I was at Cabellas a few weeks ago and was just totally entranced by their aquarium.

And I took up playing that Fishville game that Facebook has. It's the only game I play. I'm just a nerd for fish and biology. The fish in the game area real species. It's neat to look up the fish online and read about them in the wild.

Love Cichlids too and don't forget We have native Cichlid species here in our rivers as well, I caught a couple a few years ago in Barton Springs and had them in my pond. They grew fairly big and had that classic Cichlid shape. Also grew up with fish tanks and over the years have had everything from African Cichlids to Tropical to Salt Water fish. Dont have the time these days for a tank but I miss it.

You probably had sunfish. They're very similar to Cichlids in appearance, but aren't the same group.

As for the northernmost species, that would be Herichthys cyanoguttatus. It's range extends from central Mexico until the Rio Grande watershed. They can rarely, and I mean very rarely, be found north of that. These findings, however, are due to human (oftentimes pet) release. The conditions are actually not correct in these areas for reproduction or long-term survival, so they quickly die off.

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/187...ntral-district

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...e-2395272.html

At first thats what we thought that they were Sunfish but my aunt who has a degree in Zoology at UT took a look at them and said they were a type of Cichlid. They didnt have the spot on the sides like Sunfish do either but did have a greyish striped body. Ive heard of Texas Cichlids and there was an aquarium not far from here that sold them though I never did buy any. Either they just have been named that and are not true Cichlids or they are a branch of that family. Its quite possible what I cought was a release of someones pet fish who knows, they were cute and survived the winter in my pond.

They said at the presentation that up to 6 million square feet of space could be built.

http://austin.ynn.com/content/top_st...-shore-central

Herichthys cyanoguttatus are Texas Cichlids. It was most likely a release if it was truly a Texas Cichlid.

Ok, big thanks to Jdawgboy and nixcity for the invite. The three of us met up and went to the public presentation. I planned to take photos, and they turned out mostly ok, but then I saw their PDF file of the same images, so I just did screen caps of them to post.

By the way, Chris Riley was there with his bicycle water bottle in hand of course. We didn't meet him, but he was about 8 feet away from us.


What they're planning is to completely redo the street grid south of the river around Barton Springs and Riverside. They'll even add new streets. This will break up the blocks to make them smaller. It'll allow them to widen the sidewalks and have more street facing retail.

They also said the area could support up to 6 million square feet of new space with building heights up to 16 floors. I wouldn't think any of them would be over 200 feet tall. And in their conceptual images, none looked to be taller than the Hyatt, which is the tallest building in South Austin at 185 feet.

There are three different plans that might end up having different street grids.

PDF Plan - The images came from this link.
http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ai...aiab095036.pdf

This is what the grid looks like today. Large blocks that limit access to the waterfront bordered by fast moving traffic and narrow sidewalks with vacant gravel parking lots.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...s/Image1-2.jpg

This is what the street grid could look like. Smaller blocks that are tree lined with stores facing the street with other uses above.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...s/Image5-2.jpg

This shows what the impact would be to the area with respect to the number of jobs that would be created. These numbers do not include construction jobs. It also shows how much property tax money would be generated for the city.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...gs/Image16.jpg

This shows what kind of building heights to expect.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../Image10-1.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...gs/Image11.jpg

Comparing the heights of the new buildings south of the river to those in downtown.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...s/Image8-2.jpg

Streetscape along Congress.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...gs/Image12.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...gs/Image13.jpg

They also said that there would be plans to redo South First and South Congress. They would be tree lined with wider sidewalks. The streets would turn into Austin's grand central avenues, similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago with them being more pedestrian friendly and safe.

I do wonder though, with them planning to have a median down both streets that if they do that for Congress how it might interfere with the Capitol view corridor straight down Congress.

More renderings and details

South First Street and Congress Avenue layout


Highrise Apartment


Hotel


Shared Parking Structure


Affordable Housing


Parking Recommendations


South Shore Central Good Planning Practices


Walkability and Austin (compared to other cities).


Austin Trends

:haha: OMG, that's so good. This could be one of the best things to ever happen to Austin. Making South Congress beautiful, walkable, and safe may be the most exciting part; other than the idea of creating smaller blocks and whole new streets, of course. Shit like this just gives me chills. There's so much potential. So many cool new hangouts to create. This would be the biggest and most potent extension of urbanism beyond the bounds of traditional downtown. And that's got to be our goal; the urbanization of Austin.