Today, the Austin City Council approved a project that will include two towers, each approximately 20 floors, adjacent to the Hyatt on the south shore of Town Lake. The project, to be developed by Fairfield Residential of Grand Prarie, shows how much the attitudes towards development has changed over the last few decades.
How many buildings fit downtown?
Last June, the Austin Chronicle published a fascinating analysis of potential downtown development. The main point is simple: it is getting very difficult to assemble a downtown parcel large enough for a major project. The number of viable sites is rapidly dwindling. The mayor has set a goal of 25,000 residents downtown by 2015 —…
Downtown Post Office Redevelopment
Not everybody is thrilled with the rate of development downtown. However, most Austinites would agree that the downtown post office at 6th & Guadalupe is one of the worst developed sites in the city. They took a prime downtown lot and built a small ugly 2-story post office that takes up less than 30% of…
Seaholm Details Revealed
More details emerged today on one of the most important downtown projects: the redevelopment of the Seaholm power plant site between Lamar and the second street district and just north of the river. Seaholm is a 7.8 acre site, the main feature of which is the 136,000 historic art deco decommissioned power plant. The redevelopment…
Beyond Residential: Other Downtown Projects
While the focus of AustinTowers is downtown high-rise residential development, there are a number of non-residential projects that will also help reshape downtown over the next few years. Here are a few: W Hotel – The new W Hotel will anchor the $225 million “Block 21” project in the heart of the second street district….
Is this the Future Austin Skyline?
With more than a dozen high-rise projects currently in the planning or construction phases, Austin’s skyline will change fast. This composite image (source unknown) provides a sense of the scale of the different projects. Note that the Congress Condos has been renamed the Austonian and is currently planned at 55 stories — about the height…