This is my first post in over three years of following the Austin skyscraper forum but I feel I have to say something with the unbelievable volume of hate-filled, design-bashing posts that seem to permeate through most of the project threads recently.
First, give credit to the architect for trying to design something unique and pushing the status quo of the somewhat generic office tower scene in Austin. I'm not a huge fan of this building either, but isn't that spirit of being different what makes Austin so weird and cool? God forbid Brandywine had proposed another boxy, rectangular blue pane glass tower that would be a middle child to the Colorado Tower and 5th & Colorado which some of you would no doubt gripe, bitch and moan about for months on end....
Second, some of you are flipping out over the amount of parking associated with this project. Due to the sheer number of entry-level employees and vendors that will work in this building (or any office tower DT) that can't afford to live anywhere near the core of the city, ridiculously large parking podiums are a "necessary evil" for office developers to successfully lease these projects quickly. I know everyone seems to think light rail is THE solution to our traffic and mobility problems but it's simply not (plus even if a proposal got voter approval on the November ballot we are still AT LEAST 7-8 years out from having an operational system - what are office developers supposed to do in the meantime? You can get away with providing little or even no parking in a residential tower DT but not office - that is project suicide). It is also been a priority of Brandywine's to provide additional parking for the ground floor retail AND public parking so they can simultaneously serve all three segments. The Warehouse District is arguably the most desirable part of DT to provide public parking for obvious reasons.
Third, take some comfort in this: 405 Colorado is not going to be tall enough to be visible over the other existing and soon-to-be constructed towers when looking at the skyline from the West, SW, South, SE or East. The only part of town this building will be clearly visible to is the Northside, and even then you'll only be able to see the "molar" portion and not the parking podium which I believe is the largest source of discontent with the design for most of you.
Some of y'all are REAL design snobs. Our city has a fantastic skyline largely thanks to the incredible mix of colors, sizes, designs and styles of the various buildings. This project will at least contribute to that diversity if nothing else aesthetically. I respect everyone's opinion and design debate is a fun part of this forum but lately it feels kind of overwhelming when so many of the new "updates" I see on these threads are just more complaints about how awful some aspect of the design is rather than project specifics (props to you, The ATX, for all the timely permitting posts lately - they are very insightful). I'm just thankful that we live in a city going through such an intense development cycle with so many new projects to discuss - even if some of them like this one aren't the most aesthetically appealing. That is my rant....I've been taking some incredible pictures of all the new high-rise projects DT and I'll start sharing the more recent ones with you guys. Cheers