Downtown Projects

[LCHorn 2612]

15 hours ago, DalTxHornFan said:

No love for World Class, et al. here either:

 

I'm convinced it's all a front to launder money. 

[Updawg 2266]

But where are all those rats gonna go?

There are plenty of other state buildings for them

[Deej 76752]

2 hours ago, MAUFRAIS said:

But where are all those rats gonna go?

Across the street to the W.

[3adays 454]

World Class recently moved out of the top of Frost Tower to class B property Lavaca Plaza. Might be a sign of things to come. 

[demos 3002]

How I imagine the employees in the Hobby building...

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

4 hours ago, Deej said:

Across the street to the W.

They will be out at the pool. Rats = rude ass tiddies 

[KaiserSoze 998]

Current progress at the Google building as of this morning. Not much has changed visibly, but it seems their almost finished with the retaining walls.

 

 

 

Also, they're building the sidewalk and putting in trees at Austin Proper or whatever the hell it's called across the street.

 

 

 

[Pasken 1309]

Should Convention center expansion be its own thread?

 

Council wants to pursue option 5 of the UT study which would be done in 2 phases. The eventual goal would be:

• a taller convention center that takes up less city blocks
• restores the city street grid
• provides space for private high rise developments
• provides more green space
• provides a public event space

 

The Financial Points:

• Would be financed by maxing out the hotel tax which can only be done to expand the convention center by state law
• %30 of the raise would go to support the arts industry in Austin
• Hotels in the area have agreed to an additional purely voluntary tax on top of the raise that would put millions of dollars every year toward problems in the area including homelessness

 

SO basically, it doesn't cost Austin residents anything and it generates money for shit that needs money. It also helps Austin get better conventions which helps support the service industry. This is a no brainer. 

 

 

click to enlarge:

 

This is the layout after phase 1. Two floors of expo area is pretty dope. I like that model a lot. The south Vegas hall has 2 floors and it's nicer than the sprawl that comes with a single floor design.

 

5.2 would not begin right after 5.1. It would take another action by council.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Pasken

[Homercles 10205]

Not necessarily a project but that last holdout house on Rainey is up for sale...$2M+ against appraised value of 1.1M.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kxan.com/amp/news/local/austin/last-residential-home-on-rainey-street-up-for-sale/2050364103

KUT did a great piece on this guy earlier this year

https://www.kut.org/post/families-who-lived-rainey-street-all-left-one-man-stayed

Wife always asked the staff at Emmer and Rye if they ever met the guy

[KaiserSoze 998]

They've started digging on the Google lot.

[Longhorn Al 440]

New proposal at 7th & Lavaca: https://austin.towers.net/a-towers-headed-for-downtown-austins-historic-royal-arch-masonic-lodge/?agent=caitlyn@towers.net

25-30+ stories above the Masonic Lodge.

Quote

Documents for the project, which also name firms Stone Development Group and DCI Engineers, present plans for an extensive restoration of the existing three-story historic building, with a new tower structure rising from it. The tower addition is stated as containing “25 to 30” stories in a few of these documents, but also “30+” stories in at least one other description

 

[Guest Lobo]

The most exciting part of that massive section of downtown is choosing to eat leftovers of leftovers at the secret Lubys or taking your chances that glorias may not be serving malaria that day.  

[Deej 76752]

Why do they continue to leave the homeless tents out of these renderings?

[MAUFRAIS 6618]

Secret luby’s? Is that a shot at headliners or something?

If there’s actually a secret Lubys downtown, I am genuinely intrigued.

[Deej 76752]

13 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Secret luby’s? Is that a shot at headliners or something?

If there’s actually a secret Lubys downtown, I am genuinely intrigued.

There is a Luby's in the basement of the County building at 7th and Lavaca.

[MAUFRAIS 6618]

Can somebody please post the picture of the big lone star sign that used to be at the corner of the drag and dean Keaton? Muchos gracias.

[chitwood 155]

On 6/24/2019 at 5:53 PM, Longhorn Al said:

New proposal at 7th & Lavaca: https://austin.towers.net/a-towers-headed-for-downtown-austins-historic-royal-arch-masonic-lodge/?agent=caitlyn@towers.net

25-30+ stories above the Masonic Lodge.

 

So given that I am on the 18th floor of the building in the picture above Gloria's looking north, does that mean I will be lucky enough to stare into the window of another building 50 feet away instead of the Capitol and UT Tower?

[bolverk 29652]

25 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Can somebody please post the picture of the big lone star sign that used to be at the corner of the drag and dean Keaton? Muchos gracias.

Not really following you there, sidewalk guy.

3 minutes ago, chitwood said:

So given that I am on the 18th floor of the building in the picture above Gloria's looking north, does that mean I will be lucky enough to stare into the window of another building 50 feet away instead of the Capitol and UT Tower?

Yes. Treat it as an opportunity to break out your binoculars like you (or someone on your floor) did to stare into Weymouth.

[MAUFRAIS 6618]

I feel like I’ve seen it posted somewhere on this site, maybe discussing the moxie millennial hotel. Recently some dude was talking about throwing rocks at it when he was in school. It was up way back when I was still dead so I never saw it, but i think someone said it was there by the jack in the box and hole in the wall.

[Bigpoppapump 529]

On 6/24/2019 at 6:01 PM, Lobo said:

The most exciting part of that massive section of downtown is choosing to eat leftovers of leftovers at the secret Lubys or taking your chances that glorias may not be serving malaria that day.  

+1 for glorias

[LCHorn 2612]

40 minutes ago, Bigpoppapump said:

+1 for glorias

+1 for malaria

[BottleRocket 644]

The secret Lubys

 

They have several varieties of square fish - almond crusted, baked, blackened, and fried with little prepackaged containers of sauces of tartare or red. Their boiled greens and jalapeño corn bread are quite legit for this southern boy.

[Guest Lobo]

Don't get me wrong.  I ain't above Luby's.  I had an office there for about 1.5 yrs.  It's just when your office overlooks the top of the parking garage/loading dock, and you see the van from the other Austin stores pull up each day and drop breakfast and lunch and most days, just let it sit in the cart for awhile while they smoke and bullshit with the other workers...and then see reheats of reheats of leftovers of leftovers from other Luby's stores because they know the county employees are easier to deal with than the angry seniors at their other stores...it's just enough to turn you off of eating there.  A good meal at Luby's when it's freshly cooked is a damn fine meal.  But as their model and footprint compresses, that is hard to find.  

[Deej 76752]

48 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Don't get me wrong.  I ain't above Luby's.  I had an office there for about 1.5 yrs.  It's just when your office overlooks the top of the parking garage/loading dock, and you see the van from the other Austin stores pull up each day and drop breakfast and lunch and most days, just let it sit in the cart for awhile while they smoke and bullshit with the other workers...and then see reheats of reheats of leftovers of leftovers from other Luby's stores because they know the county employees are easier to deal with than the angry seniors at their other stores...it's just enough to turn you off of eating there.  A good meal at Luby's when it's freshly cooked is a damn fine meal.  But as their model and footprint compresses, that is hard to find.  

It could be worse. You could be eating at Mac's Meals, the cafeteria in the Hobby building. 

[bolverk 29652]

The little sandwich in the lobby of the new SXSW building isn't anything to gush over either. Very disappointed it didn't end up being a Royal Blue type thing.

[Guest Lobo]

You talking about the SXSbites cafe?  

 

[bolverk 29652]

5 minutes ago, Lobo said:

You talking about the SXSbites cafe?  

 

Yeah, I think that's what they call that barren counter.

[Guest Lobo]

Barren Counter?  isn't that what they call Sarah Palin?  

[Guest Lobo]

Great news everyone, the much needed Dominos Pizza At 5th and Guadalupe is opening today!   Finally a chance at a decent pie in Austin.  

[bolverk 29652]

KUT's ATXplained story about the unfinished looking "crown" of the Jenga Tower.

https://www.kut.org/post/why-does-top-austins-tallest-building-look-unfinished

Quote

"They went out of their way to build the tallest building in town by a couple of feet. They're the ones who kind of branded it as the crown," Anstead says. "They wrote media and press releases about rewriting the Austin skyline and then it just, you know, womp womp."

Answer:

Quote

 

The top of the Independent has a couple of features. For one, it has these huge steel outriggers that stabilize it.

Two, at the very top of the huge concrete column is a giant water tank, called a "liquid tune damper." A building with this much surface area needs to withstand a lot of force from wind blowing against it, Rhode says. That force can cause the building to sway. Basically, the water in the damper tank sloshes around in response to the sway.

"That kind of slows down the movement," Rhode says. "And it works the best at the very top of the building."

Finally, there's mesh material that encases the whole top. Rhode says he wanted to make the top somewhat transparent, so you could see what's there. But the mesh also allows wind to pass through, reducing the force of the wind at the top of the building, where it would have the most impact.

In fact, if it weren't for these features, Rhode says, the top of the building might sway up to a foot and a half in each direction. Not exactly a comfortable feeling if you're living inside the building.

So that’s why it looks the way it does, but how does it feel to have this huge creation out in the open, for anyone to tell you exactly what they think about it? Does that kind of criticism feel bad?

"You stop and think, try to understand what their point of view is. So, in that sense, feel bad? No," Rhode says. "Maybe it's a little bit of a pause of reflection, if you will, to try to understand what that criticism is. And I've learned a lot from it. I don't know that we would have done anything different here, but I think it's something that does make you pause and think. And I think that's needed."

Rhode says one of his goals was to "up the ante," to "start a conversation" about the design of buildings along Austin's skyline. He knows there are haters, but in time, people may come to see the Independent as just as much a part of Austin as the Frost Bank tower.

"Even the Eiffel Tower was hated," Rhode says. "There was a huge move to tear it down." 

He pauses.

"I'm not comparing our building to the Eiffel Tower, so I hope it doesn't come across that way."

In a sense, the top of the building isn't quite finished. Rhode says workers are adding lighting that can change colors, kind of like the top of the Empire State Building. Look for that later this year.

 

The whole story is worth listening to.

[Guest Lobo]

I get it, but the structures he mentioned were bold, unconventional, even esoteric.  Of course they were/are going to have detractors and critics.  

I think the issue with the top of the Independent stems not from those issues, but from the fact that their stylistic and aesthetic decision was to place a square-shaped above-ground pool on top of a skyscraper and then enclose it in chain-link fence.  

That ain't bold nor interesting.  

[Armybrat 40822]

It looks like one of those rooftop jailhouse exercise deck cages. 

At least put some chickens in it.

[Guest Lobo]

Good point, I guess the Travis County Jail also has a "Crown" on the top of it, amirite?  Here's to the Crowns of Downtown West!  

[bolverk 29652]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

I get it, but the structures he mentioned were bold, unconventional, even esoteric.  Of course they were/are going to have detractors and critics.  

 I think the issue with the top of the Independent stems not from those issues, but from the fact that their stylistic and aesthetic decision was to place a square-shaped above-ground pool on top of a skyscraper and then enclose it in chain-link fence.  

That ain't bold nor interesting.  

Yeah, I'm not a fan either.

[Guest Lobo]

Make it into the state's tallest, loudest, and hottest roof-top bar?  Young people love that dumb shit for some reason.  Drinking in the dark at street level is apparently just for us old Gen-Xers apparently.  

[clapclapclap 9000]

2 hours ago, Armybrat said:

It looks like one of those rooftop jailhouse exercise deck cages. 

At least put some chickens in it.

And don't clip their wings.  Dive bombing adds an element of interest.

[Biff Tannen 45664]

5 hours ago, bolverk said:

In fact, if it weren't for these features, Rhode says, the top of the building might sway up to a foot and a half in each direction. Not exactly a comfortable feeling if you're living inside the building.

Then how do buildings in other places that are way taller deal with sway?  I've always thought being at the top of this building in Manhattan would be fucking terrifying.  That shit has to sway a ton right?

[Armybrat 40822]

It probably has a slosh tank or a pendulum built in near the top floor.

Or a Vic chick sleeping in a penthouse hammock.

Edited July 15, 2019 by Armybrat

[Deej 76752]

7 hours ago, Lobo said:

I get it, but the structures he mentioned were bold, unconventional, even esoteric.  Of course they were/are going to have detractors and critics.  

I think the issue with the top of the Independent stems not from those issues, but from the fact that their stylistic and aesthetic decision was to place a square-shaped above-ground pool on top of a skyscraper and then enclose it in chain-link fence.  

That ain't bold nor interesting.  

Yep. They should have gone with the horizontal wood fencing, instead of chain link. That really screams, "New Austin."

[Guest Lobo]

Or maybe hogwire, kind of a nouveau riche meets country thing.  Paint the hogwire in rose gold to glisten in the setting sun.  Plus that pool has to be loads of fun up there with inflatable flamingos and what-not.  

I like that they think "lighting" is gonna make it look better.  Same guy is charge of the interior CapEx at the Palazio from what I understand.

[smokebomb 357]

5 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Then how do buildings in other places that are way taller deal with sway?  I've always thought being at the top of this building in Manhattan would be fucking terrifying.  That shit has to sway a ton right?

https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/skyscraper4.htm

Quote

Some buildings already use advanced wind-compensating dampers. The Citicorp Center in New York, for example, uses a tuned mass damper. In this complex system, oil hydraulic systems push a 400-ton concrete weight back and forth on one of the top floors, shifting the weight of the entire building from side to side. A sophisticated computer system carefully monitors how the wind is shifting the building and moves the weight accordingly. Some similar systems shift the building's weight based on the movement of giant pendulums.

 

[Chet Steadman 940]

On 3/6/2019 at 9:50 PM, 3adays said:

Why do you think goodnight might not open?

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2019/07/19/sixth-street-entertainment-hub-finally-readies-to.html?ana=e_ae_set1&j=&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTmpjd09USmtZemRsWTJNMSIsInQiOiI5RWdCN2dEXC9WME5udnMySGRKWnBoRWpXTlRBbEFySjEwcWlaMmVNbTBwSzFhMkJ3dUlUa2ZVcDNIelNaSmNIaVBCR2pzUDd6c3FSR1B3eHJFQ24rWlJkNTZkUU53K2s4a2xXSThNbUZGQkhkcHlMXC9RcHBESm83d2hnOUJ6aVRqIn0%3D

[Guest Lobo]

I think the other glaring clue was that nothing had happened to that building in two years.  They'd send in one guy every 30 days to "tinker" with the electrical to keep the permit active.  

It's now going to be a bull-riding bar and duck bowling.  And in the true spirit of Austin, it'll have a robust, "Craft cocktail" program.  I'd pay more attention to a bar opening that said, "We are not having a craft cocktail program, no craft beer program, nothing like that.  We'll have lots of good alcohol, served how you prefer, at reasonable prices."  

[KaiserSoze 998]

Duck bowling- I saw that in a bar in Columbus, OH last month. I hope the mechanical bull is super close to the lanes so you can add a bit of extra challenge while releasing the ball.

Edited July 22, 2019 by KaiserSoze

[bolverk 29652]

Demolition Of Brackenridge Starts This Month, Paving The Way For 17-Story Office Building

After more than 130 years in Austin, a portion of the University Medical Center Brackenridge downtown will come down this month and be replaced by a 17-story office building. The demolition is part of UT Austin's plan to expand its health care district centered around the Dell Medical School. 

The new office will provide more space for medical research, as well as house some of the school’s medical and academic departments. UT also plans to sublease some of the space to other health care partners outside the university system. Clinical care is not expected to take place at the facility.

UT spokesperson Gary Susswein says this redevelopment will create a hub where academics, medical professionals and officials from Central Health and Ascension Seton can come together to collaborate.

“It’s what we always envisioned when we were creating Dell Medical School in order to serve the health needs of the local population,” he said. “To have this building go up is a milestone. It’s a key part of that effort.”  

The 2033 Higher Education Development Foundation, a local nonprofit set up to benefit UT Austin, is paying for the redevelopment of the 1.2-acre site along Red River Street. It signed a 99-year lease with Central Health, which owns the entire 14.3-acre property, and the revenue generated from that lease is expected to be more than $460 million. Officials say this will help pay for health care services in underserved areas in Travis County. 

“It’s exciting to see activity on Central Health’s property because it means we’ll soon be generating even more lease revenue,” Guadalupe Zamora, M.D., a Central Health board chairperson, said in a press release. “We’re redeveloping this property with the sole purpose of funding our mission of caring for people with low income.”

The construction project also includes plans to improve public access to Waller Creek by straightening Red River through the redeveloped property. 

Brackenridge closed in May 2017 when Ascension Seton moved across the street to the new Dell Seton Medical Center. 

The redevelopment of the old Brackenridge property is expected to be completed by 2022.

[Chet Steadman 940]

“Hey Nate.” 

<Knock, knock>

“We’re here.”   

[ZB'Tejas 593]

On 5/23/2019 at 3:40 PM, LCHorn said:

I'm convinced it's all a front to launder money. 

Haha

[DalTxHornFan 3097]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:20 AM, DalTxHornFan said:

99 Trinity Site Faces Foreclosure

Does anybody else ever wonder if World Class Capital, et al. is all smoke and mirrors?

https://austin.towers.net/99-trinity-site-faces-foreclosure/?fbclid=IwAR3Gc9a55VlaEsyipjWPKzxFf8mc8aXm25Om8TwuiWSj0LOwESmLlcvO-tg

I'm not gonna say I told y'all so -- but I told y'all so!

[Mr. Blutarsky 133]

11 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

I'm not gonna say I told y'all so -- but I told y'all so!

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/fbi-conducting-operation-in-downtown-austin/

[MAUFRAIS 6618]

Should’ve been a doctor, fuckface.