Austin & Austin Metro Projects Compilation

[The ATX]

The Domain area is starting to become a nice cluster of high-rises 10-12 miles North of downtown.  Recent site plan filings include:

~300' office buildings x 2

20-25-story residential buildings x 2

 

[The ATX]

This is the site of another student apartment tower.  There was a pre-development permit filed this week, and Urbannizer got a driveby of core sampling happening on the site the next day.

 

[The ATX]

These are renderings of the 15-story apartment building going up on the site of the abandoned shopping center fenced off for demo a few posts up.  It's better than an abandoned shopping center, but it's still nothing special.  NIMBYs and their City Council allies killed the original proposal which was two slightly taller towers with a full service ground floor grocery store.  It also was going to have ~300 affordable units, but NIMBYs only use the lack of affordable units as an argument against a project when there are no affordable units.  Since that wasn't the case this time, they went with the usual complaints about traffic. 

GDA Architects

 

[Dr. B.]

On 11/16/2018 at 9:37 PM, The ATX said:

These are renderings of the 15-story apartment building going up on the site of the abandoned shopping center fenced off for demo a few posts up.  It's better than an abandoned shopping center, but it's still nothing special.  NIMBYs and their City Council allies killed the original proposal which was two slightly taller towers with a full service ground floor grocery store.  It also was going to have ~300 affordable units, but NIMBYs only use the lack of affordable units as an argument against a project when there are no affordable units.  Since that wasn't the case this time, they went with the usual complaints about traffic. 

GDA Architects

 

The original buildings proposed (and NIMBY-ied) I felt were better looking also. But I guess this one will create something of a mirror with the proposed tower on the opposite side of I-35.

[The ATX]

This and the Alexan will make for a better skyline view when driving in from the North on I-35.  

[The ATX]

Here are two more possible 50ish-story/600 footish towers.  The owners of the Railyard Condos which occupy a half block on two separate blocks near the convention center have put the sites up for sale.  These are from the marketing flyer.

[The ATX]

These first two are the sites of the 1601 Congress and 1801 Congress State office buildings at the downtown Capitol Complex.

1601 Congress.  Site Prep starting soon.

 

1801 Congress.

Webcam

 

This is the Phase I expansion of the North Austin State Office Complex.  Only one of three tower cranes is up.

Texas Facilities Commission

[The ATX]

We have new renderings of the Travis County Civil Court Complex.  It consists of a courthouse and an office building.  It's not bad considering car bomb defenses need to be a street level consideration for courthouses.

 

Austin Design Commission Presentation

[The ATX]

Here's an update on the major makeover of the North end of Soco.

Link

[The ATX]

The Huston and Alexan apartment towers are directly across I-35 from each other and will make excellent sentries driving into downtown from the North.  They are both undergoing site demo.

The Huston:  

Photos by corvairkeith

 

The Alexan:  

Photo by corvairkeith

 

Photo by Max Tower

[The ATX]

Here's a photo update of the Kalahari resort and convention center going up in Round Rock.

Austin Business Journal

[KJHburg]

Texas's Fort Knox gold depository is under way in Leander.   Now if I had some gold bars I would definitely deposit them here. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/12/19/texas-fort-knox-dirt-turns-for-states-first.html?ana=e_ae_set2&s=article_du&ed=2018-12-19&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1545254255&j=85640471

[The ATX]

This seems like another example of Texas thinking of itself as a separate nation where having its own Fort Knox is something important.  But I support it.  

[The ATX]

Here are some screen capture renderings from the Design Commission meeting about the Travis Co. Civil Courthouse Complex.  Pedestrian interaction appears to be decent for a courthouse.

Meeting Video Link

[The ATX]

In the last two days we have gotten final approval for a $338 million Basketball/Special Events Arena and a $225 million MLS stadium.

Here's a re-post of the MLS stadium that is planned to be ready for the 2021 MLS season.  It's in North Austin by the Domain.  The Domain area should be referred to as Uptown.  But that hasn't caught on yet outside of Urban planet. 

Statesman

 

Here's the University of Texas Basketball arena that will also serve as the city's main special events/concert arena.  It's smaller than the arena (Frank Erwin Center, aka Drum) that it's replacing.  The Drum had seating for 18K for concerts while the new facility will seat 15K for concerts and 10K for basketball.  It's located on the U.T. campus and will literally bump up against I-35.  It's half underground like the Drum due to height limiting Capitol View Corridors.  The reason for the new arena is due to the Drum being demo'ed for the next expansion phase of the University of Texas Dell Medical Center.  The Drum can be seen at the left edge of the rendering.

 

Here's the site.  It's currently a surface lot and a road.  The road will apparently be re-routed.  The 100K+capacity DKR football stadium is just out of view to the right.

Statesman

 

[The ATX]

Here are some updates on State office projects.

1801 Congress excavation may have hit bottom.

Link

 

Site prep (at least tree removal and a wall knock down) has started at 1601 Congress.

 

Link

 

Still waiting for the other two tower cranes to go up for Phase I expansion of the State's North Austin Complex. 

Link

[The ATX]

Phase I of the Oracle campus was completed earlier this year.  Two tower cranes are up for Phase II already.  Oracle is planning to employ 10K at build out.  That'll rival Apples' second and just announced campus and Dell's HQ.

 

Photo by mumu

[The ATX]

This hulking parking structure is set for an implosion this Sunday morning.  It will make way for another one of the many 17/18-story student apartment buildings going up in West Campus.

 

Right across the street from this are the 11-story University Towers which were approved for demo in November.  According to the demo site plan, this demo won't be an implosion.

 

[The ATX]

From this morning:  

 

[The ATX]

This 4K drone video of the implosion is awesome:  

 

[The ATX]

The State's North Austin Complex got another tower crane and a live webcam!

Webcam

[The ATX]

The implosion in the video was for the Standard at Austin.  We now have elevations for the project that is replacing the 11-story story University Towers across the street from the implosion site.  It's the Standard at Austin II.
The zoning in the West Campus limits the height to 17/18-stories.  In addition to all of the 17/18-story projects recently built, there are around 10 more planned or U/C.

Link

[The ATX]

Elevations were released this week for a 13-story Cambria hotel downtown.  It's too short to make my list.  And it looks to be ugly.

 

AULCC

[The ATX]

Yet another 17-story student apartment building.  This one is called 19 Block.

AULCC

[The ATX]

The 5,000 seat USL stadium is U/C at the Circuit of the Americas F1 track.  They will have played two seasons before the MLS team starts play.  It'll be interesting to see how the USL team does after the MLS team begins playing.

 

Community Impact