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Longhorn Al

By Longhorn Al
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Deej
Deej

Did you lose something in particular?

Mittens
Mittens

2014 >>> 2023

yoladu
yoladu

not exactly downtown.. but... 17 stories.  

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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Posted

that's pretty cool, despite the 70's graphics. I had this drunken idea years ago to do kind of a sim city thing where you can scroll through the years block by block of central Austin to see what was there (even include photos if available) from the 70's until now.  And it would be mostly crowdsourced, like somebody would just know what was at 12th & Trinity in 1983 because they were there.  Google maps has the time lapse thing but not going back far enough for Austinites.  We could see just how far back the "See that?  There!  That's when the corporations came in and ruined it!"  

Fun fact-If you zoom in on 58Y & 58Z, you can see Nicole dumping bodies into Town Lake.  

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LonghornSean

LonghornSean 3989

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Two panels pulled from TxDOT's schematic showing UT's caps over the highway shaded in orange. The caps cover most of the western portion of the highway. Frontage roads are at ground level and indicated in pink.

These two panels pulled from TxDOT's schematic show proposed caps over the highway shaded in orange. The top panel is from 15th Street to Clyde Littlefield Drive. The lower panel is from Clyde Littlefield to Dean Keeton Street. The pink lanes are the frontage roads at ground level.

Edited by LonghornSean
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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

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17 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

$400 million to deck I-35 from MLK to 26th seems cheap compared to other txdot projects.

They are charging $4million for a single acre lot in Northwest Hills.

$23.5m/acre adjacent to UT that can connect the baseball fields and graduate housing to the main campus is a great deal and is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3245

Posted
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5 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

They are charging $4million for a single acre lot in Northwest Hills.

$23.5m/acre adjacent to UT that can connect the baseball fields and graduate housing to the main campus is a great deal and is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

i didn't even consider the aspect of adding usable land as an asset.  i was just thinking about the construction side of it.  but what you said is right.  it comes out to $540 a sq ft (!!!!).  

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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Just that they're gonna keep moving more and more graduate/married student housing east of IH-35 and yes, the connectivity plan for pedestrians/bike riders/annoying scooter people to main campus will be a great asset.  But it's just another tacit heads-up that little by little, all of Brackenridge tract is going bye-bye, along with the golf course.  I know most people have accepted it as inevitable, but there's still some hold-outs.  But the school is going to push farther and farther into East Austin and fund it with Brackenridge proceeds (in part).  Nothing shocking, I know.  

What is weird to me though is the school is about the same size it has been for the last 40 years.  But you look at West Campus housing going vertical and then what's happening in East Campus/Blacklands area.  And then the innovation district.  It "feels" like the school is getting much larger, but it's really just shuffling around chess pieces.  The 'new'-ish business school 'district' from AT&T to Dobie is gonna be interesting.  But maybe for another thread.  

Back to downtown.......Guadalupe from 8th to 3rd should be declared a fucking federal disaster zone.  

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Jiggy-Z

Jiggy-Z 3432

Posted
Posted
On 8/30/2023 at 4:34 PM, gsoda3 said:

$400 million to deck I-35 from MLK to 26th seems cheap compared to other txdot projects.

It does sound cheap, but UT taking the initiative and some of the costs will ensure some build able land.

It would not surprise me me if they drill 80' 5' diameter piers at 10' on center for all area that are not highway and build around that.

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DalTxHornFan

DalTxHornFan 3097

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5 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

It does sound cheap, but UT taking the initiative and some of the costs will ensure some build able land.

It would not surprise me me if they drill 80' 5' diameter piers at 10' on center for all area that are not highway and build around that.

How much deeper would they need to go to build some taller structures?  That could be a great land use. 

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Jiggy-Z

Jiggy-Z 3432

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25 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

How much deeper would they need to go to build some taller structures?  That could be a great land use. 

Just hit rock and embed piers the required depth. As I said 80' in that location would be more than  enough for any high rise we have now as long as there is no subterranean parking, which would obviously not happen given the overlap with buried freeway.

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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1944

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On 8/31/2023 at 6:04 PM, YGIFS said:

Starts to further elicit two bigger questions---what does a deeper foundational dig do to Ih-35 plunge?  And what about CVC for the bottom half of that 'corridor'?  

Nuke that CVC.  It's a relic of the 80's.

What view is being protected:

1. The view of the capitol seen by new arrivals at the Robert Mueller airport that vanished 20+ years ago, or:
2. The view of the capitol seen from inside a car on the IH-35 upper deck that will soon no longer exist.

Even if they keep the CVC from Mueller, I think it goes over the parking garage by the baseball field, so you have at least that amount of height to work with.

Further south near downtown, there are a lot of CVCs that were originally intended to provide a view from IH-35, and IH-35 will no longer be there.  Time to revisit and revise...

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DalTxHornFan

DalTxHornFan 3097

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

Nuke that CVC.  It's a relic of the 80's.

What view is being protected:

1. The view of the capitol seen by new arrivals at the Robert Mueller airport that vanished 20+ years ago, or:
2. The view of the capitol seen from inside a car on the IH-35 upper deck that will soon no longer exist.

Even if they keep the CVC from Mueller, I think it goes over the parking garage by the baseball field, so you have at least that amount of height to work with.

Further south near downtown, there are a lot of CVCs that were originally intended to provide a view from IH-35, and IH-35 will no longer be there.  Time to revisit and revise...

Speaking of the CVCs, I agree that many of these could be revisited -- this piece has some pretty good graphics of all of them from different perspectives:

https://austin.towers.net/see-downtown-austins-capitol-view-corridors-in-eye-popping-3d/

See Downtown Austin’s Capitol View Corridors in Eye-Popping 3D

miguel_segura_CVCs_feature-scaled.jpg

miguel_segura_CVCs-scaled.jpeg

Edited by DalTxHornFan
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yoladu

yoladu 4090

Posted
Posted (edited)

what those don't appear to show is that the origin points of the CVCs are often at two different elevations, a good example is the I35 upper deck CVC.

So as the view narrows back to the Capitol, each edge of the view is at a different elevation and varying all the way back to the Capitol.

Pain in the ass.

its like take a pizza slice.. and now tilt it.

Edited by yoladu
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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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Posted

No worries, city of Austin leadership will still proceed with $3bn expansion to convention center that was wholly relying on this hotel for justification because Steve Adler has a personal financial interest in it.  Always a shame when human shit doesn't get paid.  

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DalTxHornFan

DalTxHornFan 3097

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7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

No worries, city of Austin leadership will still proceed with $3bn expansion to convention center that was wholly relying on this hotel for justification because Steve Adler has a personal financial interest in it.  Always a shame when human shit doesn't get paid.  

What was his cut of the settlement of the Airport South Terminal lease termination litigation?  Such an obvious lawsuit clickbait position was taken by COA on that dispute.

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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Saw the new Hotel Cambria on East Avenue (backside of Rainey Street).  Delivered in the nick/knick of time for the U.S. Grand Prix.  Still so strange to me that hip/luxury/lifestyle/influencer Rainey Street has a Fairfield Inn and a Homewood Suites.  6G is doing hard-hat tours if anyone is interested, final delivery is in phases between January and March.  

Not quite downtown but damn close, and I gotta ask since it seems like I've been driving by it more and more lately.  Da fuh with the 510 South Congress Avenue office building?  You'd likely know it better as the 4 story office above Ego's Bar.  They took the time to board up all the windows, paint the entire fucking thing forest green and then go back and add white trim around all four sides while the lobby and backside overhangs function as homeless camps.  I get that don't want broken windows on the first floor but the whole thing makes no sense.  Anybody know what the hell is going on there?  

 

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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

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On 11/4/2023 at 12:09 PM, Armybrat said:

 

I call 100% bullshit, on them “adding” a 4th lane. Most of that road already had 4 lanes save a 2 mile stretch between Braker and Anderson Mill, but they didn’t build anything they just restriped the mother fucking lanes. Not only that but they restriped the lanes in places where it has 4 lanes already and took road away from the free lanes. These fuckers absolutely will piss on your leg and tell you it’s raining and nobody ever fucking calls them on it.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40822

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300 people gathered at Sanchez Elementary to protest the upcoming expansion of I-35 in downtown Austin. 
Greg Casar was the “keynote” speaker:

https://statesman-tx.newsmemory.com/?token=6403ac1a9787653f4a053f8b77aa1b29&cnum=fd6bbe4c-2b3e-eb11-a0ad-90b11c3d639b&fod=1111111STD-0&selDate=20231106&licenseType=paid_subscriber&

 

B832AC93-A39F-4C72-8108-52356007BC62.jpeg

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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1944

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16 hours ago, Armybrat said:

300 people gathered at Sanchez Elementary to protest the upcoming expansion of I-35 in downtown Austin. 
Greg Casar was the “keynote” speaker:

https://statesman-tx.newsmemory.com/?token=6403ac1a9787653f4a053f8b77aa1b29&cnum=fd6bbe4c-2b3e-eb11-a0ad-90b11c3d639b&fod=1111111STD-0&selDate=20231106&licenseType=paid_subscriber&

 

B832AC93-A39F-4C72-8108-52356007BC62.jpeg

The City of Austin for the last 50 years: "IH-35 has divided our city and created a barrier that separates us to this day."
TxDot in 2023: "Hey we want to make it not suck so much, plus tear down the upper deck.  You can cap it with parks if you have the bucks."
The City of Austin: "You are tearing us apart!"

Not only was Greg there, but the city council was halfway to a quorum with three council members.  What a bunch of NIMBYs. 🙂

The big chance to move traffic out of the city was SH-130, and they screwed up that opportunity.  They should have made that the new IH-35 and made it faster and cheaper for trucks to go around rather than through Austin.  We are spending billions on Project Connect but we never came up with the billion or so ten years ago to re-route Mopac freight east of Austin and re-purpose the rail as regional transit from Round Rock to San Antonio.

TxDot is not closing part of the national highway system and turning it into an "urban boulevard".  Good riddance to the upper deck.  Hopefully they find a way to pay for the caps.

 

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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They're pretty much already doing that under IH-35 as opposed to on top of it.  At least this way, they'll get some fresh air from the flora/arbor, maybe walk a different path in life.  I dunno.  

Not quite downtown, but on Mopac as you exit for 35th street going northbound, between the ramp and the main lanes...there's a one-off homeless encampment.  But I'll give the guy credit, it's pretty clean.  It's a tent/tarp aggregation with just a few items and a bed roll.  No trash, nice shade, little loud, but soft grass.  He doesn't get in anybody's face.  Sooner or later though, some people are gonna join him there and that's where it becomes a problem again. 

I gotta say, maybe this is for another thread.  Kirk Watson's ineffectiveness on this has been incredibly frustrating.  Both homelessness and our complete inability to properly deploy capital for the myriad mobility projects in a timely fashion.  We are over-encumbered on the debt service from 2016 & 2020 with jack fucking shit to show for it except some kinda pylon order where we saved $137 buying in bulk.  

TXDoT shares some of the burden, this isn't just unique to Austin...we're just easy to point at and blame.  But this whole fucking state.  It's not the mythical open space of Cowboys and Oil Rigs.  90% of Texans now live in urban/suburban areas.  That's just a fact, and it grows every single day.  We were blessed with land, energy, natural resources, and decent weather.  And yet we have the transportation, infrastructure, and power grids of fucking Costa Rica.  

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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

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16 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

The big chance to move traffic out of the city was SH-130, and they screwed up that opportunity.  They should have made that the new IH-35 and made it faster and cheaper for trucks to go around rather than through Austin.  We are spending billions on Project Connect but we never came up with the billion or so ten years ago to re-route Mopac freight east of Austin and re-purpose the rail as regional transit from Round Rock to San Antonio.

TxDot is not closing part of the national highway system and turning it into an "urban boulevard".  Good riddance to the upper deck.  Hopefully they find a way to pay for the caps.

Bingo, if you’ve driven on I35 in the last decade you know they’ve been expanding the fucking highway from Laredo to Denton. It’s one of the busiest highways in the country which all bottlenecks in downtown Austin. Billions or dollars in state and federal money is not going to go to waste for some idealistic pie in the sky vision.

The 130 was the opportunity of a lifetime but the City and CTRMA was too stupid or too corrupt to see it. They’ve had years to see this coming, the highway literally North and South of downtown have been expanded or are expanding. The time to fight this was YEARS ago, now they’re just wasting effort.

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royiv

royiv 9247

Posted
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5 hours ago, Mittens said:

What's going on between WAYA and AHS / Cesar Chavez and 3rd?  They've got it fenced off and have cleared so much brush you can actually see the buildings on 3rd from CC now.

I can't find a link, but I remember reading that it's a residential development. It sticks in my mind because I thought residential was an interesting choice adjacent to railroad tracks.

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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1944

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What's going on between WAYA and AHS / Cesar Chavez and 3rd?  They've got it fenced off and have cleared so much brush you can actually see the buildings on 3rd from CC now.

https://www.statesman.com/story/business/real-estate/2023/07/21/upscale-condo-project-proposed-for-austins-clarksville-neighborhood/70439464007/

247 condos with all the railroad traffic and high voltage power lines that you want.

Would be great to have some low income units for Austin High teachers, which it does not.
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smokebomb

smokebomb 357

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I can’t see the neighborhood ever getting behind this: 

https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/naus-enfield-drug-redevelopment-18554544.php

Quote

Former Nau's Enfield Drug faces mixed-use retail, residential future

The historic store officially closed in March.

By Cristela Jones

Dec 15, 2023

What was once a cherished part of the rich history of Austin is now in the planning stages of being redeveloped. The Austin American-Statesman reports that the beloved Nau's Enfield Drug building, located in Austin's Clarksville neighborhood, could be changed into a mixed-use residential and retail project.

New convenient store in Central Texas

Nau's, which was one of the last "old Austin" staples in town, announced its closure last year and ceased operations this March. Nau's Enfield Drug was known as a treasured pharmacy and soda bar. 

The new Austin-based owner, Zydeco Development Co, purchased the property and three others this fall for an undisclosed price. Zydeco is planning for a possible five-story development after recently meeting with the Old Austin neighborhood Association and Clarksville neighbors, according to the Statesman.

"We know it's a special property to a lot of people and we want to do right by it and thoughtfully reimagine the space," Zydeco principal Meghan Yancy said to the Statesman. "We're looking for more height so we can add more green space."

Plans were discussed to include rezoning the area to 25 to 30 condominiums, retail shops, and underground parking for 120 vehicles. Nau's was one of the many businesses that didn't survive the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted the Labay family to lose its lease in April 2022.

Opened by the Nau family in 1951 on West Lynn Street, the business remained a popular and nostalgic local pharmacy, even after Lambert Labay took over in 1971. The soda fountain closed in 2020, but the building remained known for its small-town look and feel that once sold cheeseburgers, served with a smile.

MySA reached out to Zydeco for comment, but did not hear back prior to publication.

Edited by smokebomb
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LCHorn

LCHorn 2612

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2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

25-30 condos on that tiny stretch of RE and road. Lmao. 

I don't think the condo count should be that big of a deal; there's that many units in an apartment complex a block away.  It's the height I'm sure the neighbors will fight.  There's nothing taller than three stories on West Lynn. 

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