AUSTIN | 405 Colorado Street | 356 FEET | 25 FLOORS | Completed

[KevinFromTexas]

Construction cam link
https://405colorado.com/live-view


http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...-austin/nmTxM/

Office building planned for Colorado, 4th streets in downtown Austin
4:35 p.m. Wednesday, June 3, 2015 | Filed in: Business

Brandywine Realty Trust is proposing to build an office project at the northeast corner of Fourth and Colorado streets, a site that is now a parking lot across from Truluck’s restaurant. The project, at 405 Colorado Street, is expected to include structured parking as well as some retail space.

Executives with Brandywine, a national real estate investment trust, said the project is not on a site where height is limited to protect views of the state Capitol. Brandywine closed on the sale of the property in April.

Brandywine has not yet selected an architecture or engineering firm for the project, and there is no timetable as yet for breaking ground.

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http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...al-office.html

Another downtown Austin site to go vertical; office, shops and parking planned

Jun 3, 2015, 5:45pm CDT
Jan Buchholz
Austin Business Journal

An office, parking and retail structure is in play at 405 Colorado St., just south of the Frank hot dog restaurant. The company has issued a request for proposals to engineering companies, according to sources. The site is one of the few remaining surface parking lots downtown.

Specific details — including height and design — of the project have not been determined, but the Pennsylvania-based company purchased the property April 9, according to spokesman Brian Dolezal.

[Jdawgboy]

Well going by the Statesman article, it's possible this could be taller than I've been expecting. In a way I wish that the parking lot at the corner of 4th and Congress would be built on. There should be no surface parking lots along Congress.

And now for some juicy gossip.
I did hear something interesting yesterday about the southwest corner of 5th and Congress. Just a rumor but it may have something to do with the former light bar building that was slated to be a hotel that in the end fell through but that hole quarter block might be in play.

Again just a rumor with no solid evidence one way or the other but if you know that corner like I do you would know that several clubs and bars have closed recently. 6 months ago the sidewalks were bustling with people and now that section is dead quiet with just 2 places left on the Congress side. I'll try to look into it more to see if the rumor has any weight to it or not. Maybe someone here has some info regarding it? I only brought it up here because save for the alley that splits it in two, this is the same full city block that this proposed 4th and Colorado building will go up.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

And now for some juicy gossip.
I did hear something interesting yesterday about the southwest corner of 5th and Congress. Just a rumor but it may have something to do with the former light bar building that was slated to be a hotel that in the end fell through but that hole quarter block might be in play.

Again just a rumor with no solid evidence one way or the other but if you know that corner like I do you would know that several clubs and bars have closed recently. 6 months ago the sidewalks were bustling with people and now that section is dead quiet with just 2 places left on the Congress side. I'll try to look into it more to see if the rumor has any weight to it or not. Maybe someone here has some info regarding it? I only brought it up here because save for the alley that splits it in two, this is the same full city block that this proposed 4th and Colorado building will go up.

It may be in play, however that half-block is split into 8 different parcels that have 8 different owners. If you wanted the whole half-block you would need to buy up and combine the 8 parcels. It could be that someone is trying to do that.

[AustinGoesVertical]

Posted this in the update thread but thought I'd add it here as well.

Preliminary site plan:



ATX with the original scoop:

https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11447198

[GoldenBoot]

Only three public elevators? Don't expect anything huge here. Seems like Brandywine will not take advantage of being on an unencumbered CVC site.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Only three public elevators? Don't expect anything huge here. Seems Brandywine will not take advantage of being on an unencumbered CVC site.

I agree with that observation. I was looking at the loading dock with space for only one truck. That doesn't bode well for a tall building. The Silicon Labs buildings are only six stories, and they each have six elevators and three or four loading docks. The U/C 5th and Colorado building has five elevators. I'm guessing 10-stories for this one.

[Jdawgboy]

I wasn't expecting this to be a tall building. Isn't there a Warehouse District overlay that this corner is included?

I was thinking no more than 5 or 6 floors even.

[AustinGoesVertical]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I wasn't expecting this to be a tall building. Isn't there a Warehouse District overlay that this corner is included?

I was thinking no more than 5 or 6 floors even.

Third and Colorado is also in the Warehouse district, so I'd be surprised if there was that much disparity in height regulations just a street over. I just always assumed we were looking at a 20-35 story tower, just based on comps around town. Brandywine, is building a 750 ft tower in Philly right now, so I had "higher" hopes (no pun intended) than 6-stories to say the least.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by AustinGoesVertical

Third and Colorado is also in the Warehouse district, so I'd be surprised if there was that much disparity in height regulations just a street over. I just always assumed we were looking at a 20-35 story tower, just based on comps around town. Brandywine, is building a 750 ft tower in Philly right now, so I had "higher" hopes (no pun intended) than 6-stories to say the least.

I remember seeing a DT zoning map or something that showed the Warehouse District with some sort of tierd height limits. Along 4th has the lowest heights but as you move away they increase. I'll have to see if I can find it.

[drummer]

Maybe they'll add a really tall spire?

[KevinFromTexas]

Sweet. I was thinking it would be something tall. With this and 416 Congress there's going to be some nice height on that block.

[The ATX]

The developers had a meeting today with the city at 2:00PM, so that may be how the height info got out.

[ivanwolf]

Nice height for such a small lot.

So the UT office building is like 20 stories and only 270' high but its a half block. 9 floors garage the rest lobby and office if I remember right.

So this may be 12-15 floors garage and the same 12-15 floors office on a quarter lot. 100' higher.

I just think the 3 elevators located at the front of the building is interesting, odd placing or maybe glass ones to ride in and see out?

Remember the north wall should be blank and ugly, the alley wall likely not much better.

[The ATX]

Scraperwill was probably pretty close with his height estimate of this project. They make no effort to hide the garage levels, but I like this.





http://www.brandywinerealty.com/prop...-tx-78701.aspx

[The ATX]

Turn around. Let me see your backside. Nice.


http://www.dudapaine.com/405-colorado-tower.html

[We vs us]

Do we know if this is the builder's final design, or just Duda Paine marketing itself?

Also, parking makes more sense here than in other places, IMO. It's gotta support not only tenants but folks coming to the warehouse distric to eat/drink/be merry. I'll bet dollars to donuts that parking for those restaurants is in tight supply even now. It honestly only stands to get worse.

[AustinGoesVertical]

Okay, so first the criticism. I think 14 levels of parking is a logistical mess but what bothers me more is the office/parking ratio. This is really a parking garage with "attached office." I'd love this building if the ratio were more 2-1, like 24-stories above this podium.

With that said, this is a HUGE win for me. Just think we could have gotten a slightly taller 5th and Colorado which would have made this basically a glass parking garage considering how much parking this one has. While I like disguising parking, I kind of find it strange when there is no differentiation between residential/office spaces and the parking garage. Seamless transition but I guess it doesn't feel natural to me.

I think this podium will actually look very cool and I love the fact this will have exterior glass elevators (which someone had opined when the site plan was released). This is an abstract beauty IMO and is very different from the recent spec office built downtown. Parking could be whittled down, but this has well exceeded my expectations.

Question: Why the blank wall facing North?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Do we know if this is the builder's final design, or just Duda Paine marketing itself?

Also, parking makes more sense here than in other places, IMO. It's gotta support not only tenants but folks coming to the warehouse distric to eat/drink/be merry. I'll bet dollars to donuts that parking for those restaurants is in tight supply even now. It honestly only stands to get worse.

The renderings are from the developer's website. So I would say it's not just an architecture firm marketing itself. The link to the last rendering goes to Duda Paine because Brandywine didn't use that image.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by The ATX

Turn around. Let me see your backside. Nice.


http://www.dudapaine.com/405-colorado-tower.html

It's hard to tell from the rendering, but that first frame looks like the linear rust-colored (burnt orange?) detail running up the back of the building is opaque. Why would you create large swaths of windowless space on an office tower? The detail is too large to just be covering an elevator shaft or mechanical equipment. The offices on that side are going to feel like caves. And even if its not completely opaque and is some sort of lattice, that's still obstructing your view and limiting your daylight. That much coverage makes no sense.

Also the drastic difference between the top and bottom halves of the building make it look squatty, even though it's not. It's not in a CVC so it could have been so much taller. I'm not a huge fan of this design. I guess its more interesting than a glass box like 5th & Colorado, but I don't think this look is going to age well. It's interesting that the same architects did the design for Frost Bank Tower and Colorado Tower. You would think they would create something that better complimented Frost since this will be in such close proximity to it.

[ahealy]

fuck this entire project. I dislike this so much I can't type anymo