A detail from one of the new renderings of the 5th & Brazos tower. Image: bKL Architecture
It’s been less than a week since we found out exactly what we’re looking forward to at the northeast corner of Fifth and Brazos Streets, but when it rains, it pours. Thanks to bKL Architecture, the folks behind the design of the 32-story mixed-use tower set to bring two hotels and 274 apartment units downtown, we’ve got a better look than ever before at the Fifth & Brazos project by Magellan Development Group and Ryan Companies:
Day and night views of the 5th & Brazos tower. In the first image, we’re looking at the building’s southeast corner at Fifth and Brazos Streets, while the second view is looking northwest from San Jacinto Boulevard. Image: bKL Architecture
A closer view of the tower’s street-level design.Image: bKL Architecture
A view of the project’s southern elevation facing Fifth Street. Image: bKL Architecture
I’ve gotta admit, this is a huge step up from the tower’s look in previous renderings. It’s a testament to how effectively good exterior design, color, and materials choices can improve a building’s look. Those dark stripes up the side of the facade, while not as jaunty as the ones over at 70 Rainey, are incredibly striking — and the bricks used on the podium give the whole package a warmer, more human impression at the street level.
Older (left) and newer (right) renderings of the 5th & Brazos tower. Images: bKL Architecture
Judging by these comparisons between older and newer renderings, we appear to have lost a few features from previous designs (RIP to the very nice balcony/terrace space seen in the rendering on the left, which has disappeared in the newer rendering on the right). Still, none of these features were ever set in stone, since there are slight variations between nearly every rendering we’ve seen of the building over the last couple of years. Here’s another comparison between older and newer:
Older (top left, top right) renderings of the Fifth & Brazos mixed-use hotel and apartment tower, compared with newer (bottom left, bottom right) versions. Images: bKL Architecture
Though it’s only a minor update compared to last week’s announcement of the dual-branded hotel flags destined for the project, it’s nice to get a fresh look at what will hopefully remain the final design of this upcoming tower, which is currently expected to open both hotel components by the end of 2020 and complete its apartment units by the end of 2021. Isn’t it amazing what a little color can do?
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