AUSTIN | Projects & Construction III

[BrodeRayEwing]

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[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Syndic

I must confess that I live in one of "those neighborhoods" at the moment. All of the streets in my area are named after influential authors; Orwell, Zola, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Kafka, Huxley, etc. Then there's some really bad, stereotypical names; Chinati Mountain Trail, Limpia Creek Drive, Candelaria Mesa Drive, Quitman Mountain Way. It's really awful. The authors thing is kind of cool, but what's with these other names? It seems like a mix of branding strategy and laziness.

Those other names are mountains and other geological features in West Texas. Candelaria is a small town in Presidio County.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...in-worlds.html

Austin ranks in world’s fastest-growing economies report
Austin Business Journal by Sarah Drake, Web Editor
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 1:33pm CST

Sarah Drake
Web Editor- Austin Business Journal

Austin is one of only five metropolitan areas in all of North America to rank in the top 70 of the 300 fastest-growing metropolitan economies worldwide, according to a Friday report.

Austin ranks No. 61 after experiencing a major recession and partial economic recovery, according to the report by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

-

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...-not-much.html

Need space in downtown Austin for your company? Good luck in this market
Austin Business Journal by Jan Buchholz, Staff Writer
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 5:00am CST - Last Modified: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 10:01pm CST

For many companies, especially those with more than 100 people under one roof, there may as well be a gigantic “no vacancy” sign over downtown Austin.

With a new mix of companies clamoring for space in the Central Business District, vacancy rates have plummeted to about 10.9 percent for Class A office properties, said Kim Gatley, senior vice president and director of research for NAI REOC brokerage in Austin. The squeeze is so tight that some commercial real estate brokers are wondering whether there are enough large blocks of space to accommodate new companies to the market.

[Tex17]

I love themed street names for neighborhoods. A famous artists and a famous composers one would be cool.

Mozart
Beethoven
Bach
Strauss
Brahms
Holst
Mahler
Verdi
Wagner
Copland
Gershwin
Sibelius
Liszt

those could all be cool names. Then you have

Cezanne
Monet
Matisse
Braque
Mondrian
Rubens
O'Keeffe
Whistler
Da Vinci
Picasso
Renoir
Bernini
Degas
Klimt

and so on

[nixcity]

Yea, Piedras Blanco is great, really, what dumbass came up with that.....anybody who has the slightest clue about Spanish knows those 2 words go together like that. Piedras Blancas would have been correct. However, hands down the best street name in town is Cockburn. hahahaha

[AviationGuy]

After having lunch today at Hecho en Mexico, which is at the intersection of William Cannon and Escarpment, I headed east on William Cannon and saw a street called Hitching Post and another called Fence Line. These streets are in a beautiful neighborhood and the street names don't even begin to match the neighborhood. Really silly names.

[Dale]

Best street name I've ever come across was in Hilton Head, SC. Check this out:

Ghost Crab Way

[NYC2ATX]

Hands down, the greatest concentration of stupid street names I've ever seen is browsing the exurb subdivisions of Las Vegas on Google Earth. The developers there clearly didn't try to pretend they weren't fresh out of normal names after a point.

Real examples: Remembrance Hill Street, Raindrop Canyon Avenue, Pewter Pheasant Avenue and Antique Sterling Court (both in the same subd.), Homerun Champ Drive (among a subd. full of baseball themed streets), Rustic Galleon Street, Briney Deep Avenue, Spindrift Cove Street....these developers should stop building houses in Vegas no one is buying and start writing fantasy novels.

Sorry for derailing this thread for a minute there Who's got a photo update of something!

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...th-beyond.html

North of Austin, Williamson County's growth is 'beyond exponential'
Austin Business Journal by Colin Pope, Editor
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012, 12:49pm CST - Last Modified: Friday, November 30, 2012, 1:39pm CST

Colin Pope
Editor- Austin Business Journal

North Austin suburbs in Williamson County will continue to be among the fastest-growing in the country during the coming years, and the onslaught of people doesn't thrill residents already living in cities such as Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander.

A quick hand-raising survey of the 400 or so attendees of Thursday's 15th annual Williamson County Growth Summit revealed that almost no one wants the area to grow that fast, but it likely will. Around 2040, more people could live in Williamson County than Travis County.

But the eye-opening, jaw-dropping information shared at the event came from city of Austin Demographer Ryan Robinson.

PDF file of slide presentation:
http://assets.bizjournals.com/austin...h%20Summit.pdf

Graph images:
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...=image_gallery

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by cole world11

I love spending time on the Austin forum because there's so much more going on! I wish some of yall's downtown momentum would rub off on downtown San Antonio :/ lol

Conversely, wish we had Pearl and Museum Reach, and a Tobin Center, Western Art Museum thang happening. The historic re-use in SA is simply brilliant! It is the only large Texas city that hasn't bulldozed most traces of the past. And I hope it keeps what's left.

Soon any address bordering the Broadway neighborhood will be a very urban one, as desirable as any further north. Am loving watching the changes on google maps, and of course right here.

I think your "height phase" is about to hit downtown too. It's all about to connect up (only my opinion). Texas 2 cool cities. Cheers!

[Jdawgboy]

Wanna hear a strange street name? Try Jinx Ave. The street I live on...

[migol24]

Originally Posted by Sterling

The historic re-use in SA is simply brilliant! It is the only large Texas city that hasn't bulldozed most traces of the past. And I hope it keeps what's left.

If only Austin had done the same thing.

[priller]

Marriott: Looks like they've reached the bottom in parts, rebar for large columns are on site, appear to be drilling.








Federal Courthouse: All the fences around it have been removed; walked by the other night you could see office furniture inside. Looks like it's close to being done. This one has grown on me over time, but the big plastic walls on top ruin the whole thing.

[photoLith]

The courthouse turned out way better than expected.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, I'm liking the texture of the facade. It's interesting, and it reminds me of the limestone cut-outs along Loop 360.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by cvalkan

One of my "favorites" is Piedras Blanco Dr. near William Cannon and McKinney Falls Pkwy.

On a somewhat similar note of infelicitous names, I've always wondered what the reasoning was behind the Bastrop subdivision with all the Hawaiian names (e.g., Keanahalululu Lane).

My understanding is that the original developer was enchanted with all things Hawaiian. Unfortunately the Lost Pines area of Bastrop does not have a damn thing about it that is remotely Hawaiian. I always thought the that the neighborhood suffered in terms of property values because of the cheesy Hawaiian theme. It is (or was before the fire) an area of nice hills and dense pine forest adjacent to the Colorado River. It always reminded me of areas outside of Atlanta or somewhere in the deep South.

[sashaman]

Unfortunately, though, the courthouse is like a nice little gem surrounded by a giant turd - the building is absolutely hideous when you are walking by on the south side of 5th Street. I actually really like the design of the main building, and the pavilion in front of Republic Square park is very nice. However, walking past the building on 5th Street all you can see are those giant, barren concrete slabs - it looks like something out of Iraq. The walls are so tall that near the west end of 5th street you can't actually see the building at all. During construction I thought those "holes" in the wall (you can see them in priller's last picture) would serve some purpose, like having panels installed or something. When they took down the construction fences and those walls were left like completely bare like they are, I got really sad. It looks like unfinished construction on that side.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by sashaman

Unfortunately, though, the courthouse is like a nice little gem surrounded by a giant turd - the building is absolutely hideous when you are walking by on the south side of 5th Street. I actually really like the design of the main building, and the pavilion in front of Republic Square park is very nice. However, walking past the building on 5th Street all you can see are those giant, barren concrete slabs - it looks like something out of Iraq. The walls are so tall that near the west end of 5th street you can't actually see the building at all. During construction I thought those "holes" in the wall (you can see them in priller's last picture) would serve some purpose, like having panels installed or something. When they took down the construction fences and those walls were left like completely bare like they are, I got really sad. It looks like unfinished construction on that side.

I could be wrong but I believe the walls are a safety barrier. One reason why San Antonio Street stops at the courthouse is regulations since 9/11 in protecting federal courthouses from a terrorist attack. I would assume those walls are designed to deflect anything from the 5th street side.

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by sashaman

Unfortunately, though, the courthouse is like a nice little gem surrounded by a giant turd - the building is absolutely hideous when you are walking by on the south side of 5th Street. I actually really like the design of the main building, and the pavilion in front of Republic Square park is very nice. However, walking past the building on 5th Street all you can see are those giant, barren concrete slabs - it looks like something out of Iraq. The walls are so tall that near the west end of 5th street you can't actually see the building at all. During construction I thought those "holes" in the wall (you can see them in priller's last picture) would serve some purpose, like having panels installed or something. When they took down the construction fences and those walls were left like completely bare like they are, I got really sad. It looks like unfinished construction on that side.

I personally love the finished courthouse a ton. I've been using the San Antonio portion as a coffee spot. I recommend it.

[priller]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I could be wrong but I believe the walls are a safety barrier. One reason why San Antonio Street stops at the courthouse is regulations since 9/11 in protecting federal courthouses from a terrorist attack. I would assume those walls are designed to deflect anything from the 5th street side.

I think this is right, except I'm pretty sure the regulations came after the Federal building was bombed in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.