A ground-floor rendering of the 600 Guadalupe tower. Okay, “6 X Guadalupe.” Image: Lincoln Property Company / Gensler
The 66-story, 848-foot residential and office tower planned at the northwest corner of Sixth and Guadalupe Streets in downtown Austin got itself a shiny write-up on this very site just last week. But wait, there’s more — a new brochure for the project released only a few days ago by developer Lincoln Property Company includes a slight adjustment to the building’s identity. It appears that from now on, the tower is to be referred to as “6 X Guadalupe.”
An example of the 600 Guadalupe building’s new branding, as “6 X Guadalupe.” Image: Lincoln Property Company
Gonna try to get past the obvious stuff first. Yes, using the X makes the building’s branding fairly reminiscent of a fashion collaboration, and if anybody truly hip really cared about real estate development, there’d probably be memes about this — “6 X Guadalupe lookin’ like it’s about to drop the hottest building of all time,” and so forth. (I guess technically the supergroup of LPC X Kairoi ft. Gensler is about to drop the tallest building of all time…in Austin, at least.)
Gonna have to get used to seeing 6 X Guadalupe and not immediately reading it as “6ix9ine.” Image: LPC / Gensler
For a second, I thought this was a SXSW thing — “Six By Guadalupe” doesn’t really make any sense, but it’s memorable! Thankfully, Lauren Rich, who handles the marketing for LPC around here, swiftly cured me of that notion — and for the record, it’s also apparently not pronounced “Six Ex Guadalupe,” kinda like how you don’t say the Roman numeral for 14 as “Ex Eye Vee” unless you’re doing some kind of bit where the humor is derived from you intentionally acting like a moron.
It will still be pronounced “Sixth and Guadalupe.”
— Lauren Rich, Marketing Manager, Lincoln Property Company
Thanks, Lauren! Still, despite the pronunciation remaining the same, it’s a notable branding adjustment. I’ve seen 600 Guadalupe, 6th and Guadalupe, and even 6th + Guadalupe thrown around for this project, and I personally think the new X will help differentiate the tower from similar-sounding buildings around town, including Fifth & West, Third + Shoal, and LPC’s own 5th + Colorado offices.
A plan showing the layout of the 6 X Guadalupe tower’s ground floor, including its separate residential and office lobbies. Image: Gensler / Lincoln Property Company / Kairoi Residential
Plus, 600 Guadalupe was never going to work as a unified building name. If you look at the plans above, you’ll see only the residential lobby of the tower opens onto Guadalupe Street, while the office lobby faces West Sixth Street. I don’t know for sure, but it’s very likely those two identities will have different addresses, meaning 600 Guadalupe isn’t suitable as a name for the whole shebang.
A nice rendering of an outdoor amenity deck on the 6 X Guadalupe building. Image: Lincoln Property Company / Gensler
Feel free to paw through the brochure yourself on LPC’s page for the project. There are some fresh renderings and a good summary of information about the building, although I don’t think it’s anything we haven’t seen before — still, even without the X, there’s been an awful lot of news about this tower lately, hasn’t there? Almost like we can expect it to break ground relatively soon.
Anyway, if you need me I’ll be watching this video from Sesame Street where the letter X decides to quit the alphabet. Keep watching the skyline!
