Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
The Republic, a 37-story office tower project, is finally taking shape at the downtown Austin block bordered by West Third, San Antonio, West Fourth, and Guadalupe Streets. The 1.77-acre site, referred to in various filings and news items as either 401 West Fourth Street or 308 Guadalupe Street, is currently occupied by only a parking lot — and it’s one of the last remaining empty downtown blocks unencumbered by a Capitol View Corridor.
A view of the 308 Guadalupe Street / 401 West Fourth Street parking lot, with the W Hotel and Residences in the background. Photo by James Rambin.
Owned by Travis County and now leased to a joint venture of developers Lincoln Property Company and Phoenix Property Company, there’s been a good bit of intrigue regarding the future of this site, not to mention a laundry list of unrealized projects. Republic Square Park’s renovation just north of the block has only amped up the speculation — would a potential tower development across the street do anything to compliment the park, like we saw in the unused designs by Gensler?
A view of the block (outlined in red), looking northeast from this perspective. Image: Google Maps
After all this mystery, it was nice to see a story back in May revealing our first glimpse of the proposed Republic project’s design by Duda/Paine Architects, best known around town as the folks behind the look of the Frost Bank Tower. But new documents filed with the city as part of the building’s application to the Downtown Density Bonus Program give us a better look at the design of the tower than ever before — so let’s jump right in and see what we’re getting.
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Here’s the Republic, in all its glory. Yeah, the design looks more than a little familiar, but it’s still a nice addition to the skyline. Plus, as you can see from these renderings, there’s a lot of open space, with two outdoor deck areas — one placed atop the parking podium section of the tower, and another higher up on its eastern side. Included in these documents are renderings of each of those decks — the first image below is the view from the higher deck looking south, with the second and third image giving us views of the lower and larger amenity deck atop the parking podium, which appears to wrap around the building on three sides:
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
The tower, at least in my opinion, looks best from the south — though its exterior color beyond just “bluish silver” is slightly hard to pin down based on renderings alone, it appears its crown lighting will give it a boost in terms of looks, as you can sorta see in the first rendering below:
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
I could just post renderings all day, but let’s take a second to run over all the details laid out in these documents. As we said earlier, it’s a 37-story building, but clocks in at 586 feet tall thanks to its large crown. That’s 44 feet higher than the Block 71 office project I see lots of similarities with, and 70 feet more than Duda/Paine’s previous Frost Bank Tower project. Despite some old rumors about potential residential units, the building as described here is completely comprised of office and retail space — 687,471 square feet and 19,423 square feet of each, respectively.
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
There’s also 13 levels of parking, with 1,644 parking spaces in all. I’m slightly let down by the visibility of the building’s parking podium, especially when other upcoming tower projects around town manage to integrate this feature fairly well — but considering Duda/Paine’s other project on the way in Austin, I guess they might not be interested in hiding parking garages.
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
As part of the density bonus program, the tower is hoping to receive an FAR of 9.15:1, up from the previous maximum of 8:1. Along with the gatekeeper requirements of the program, which include Great Streets-compliant improvements to the streetscape surrounding the building and a minimum two-star rating with Austin Energy’s Green Building program, the project’s design incorporates a large public plaza on the north end of the block adjacent to Republic Square Park:
A selection of the Republic project’s Downtown Density Bonus Program application describing the building’s outdoor plaza space. Image: Armbrust & Brown, PLLC / City of Austin
Renderings of the plaza, its connection to the park across the street, and other outdoor spaces on the ground level of the tower are heavily featured in these documents:
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects
Here’s a diagram of the building’s ground floor that gives a better idea of how everything’s oriented, with what appears to be most or all of the tower’s retail space situated here — likely restaurant usage, to take full advantage of the outdoor plaza seating and such:
Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners
It’s all very good-looking and certainly an improvement over the parking lot that’s there now. Still, I can’t help but wonder if the city wouldn’t consider closing to traffic the section of Fourth Street that splits this block from Republic Square:
Here’s what I’d do to Fourth Street if I could. That green stuff’s grass, you see. Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / TBG Partners / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects / “Illustration” by James Rambin
If we could connect the outdoor plaza space of the Republic tower to its adjacent park, without an active street running through the middle, we’d have ourselves a pretty fantastic public space — I realize it’s not as easy as it sounds, but wouldn’t it be a nice place to park food trucks?
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