It’s a visual metaphor, I guess. Photo by James Rambin.
We’ve got downtown Austin condos, apartments, offices, and hotels rising all around us in shiny new tower form these days, to the point where it’s kinda hard to keep the projects around the city straight even if you’re paying attention.
With that in mind, here are some lightning-round updates on 10 notable projects rising around downtown at the moment, with our best attempt at a progress photo for each one — they aren’t all blockbuster shots, since frustratingly vigilant security guards keep kicking us off the parking garages with the best views, but sometimes you can hold the camera over a fence or something. Let’s boogie:
Austin Marriott Downtown
Photo by James Rambin.
You know we had to start with the vertical photo — the new 31-story downtown Marriott hotel at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Trinity Streets is growing like a weed, already pretty prominent on the skyline at the moment. It’s scheduled to open in mid-2020, and with a convention center seemingly poised to expand next door, we’re sure plenty of people will prefer it over the Fairmont.
6 X Guadalupe
Photo by James Rambin.
Meanwhile, the tallest tower planned in Austin’s still just a glint in the mind’s eye of developers Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening — as evidenced by fences already up at the 600 Guadalupe Street site, which is still occupied by a (closed!) Extended Stay America hotel we’re expecting to come down any day now. There’s heavy equipment in the parking lot and you bet we’ll be there to check out the real demolition as soon as we catch wind of it.
Canopy by Hilton
Photo by James Rambin.
It might not really qualify as a tower, but the six-story Canopy by Hilton planned in the 600 block of West Sixth Street has our attention anyway. It’s the district’s first hotel, but likely not the last — people like to stay where they bar-hop, as it turns out.
Indeed Tower
Photo by James Rambin.
We’re still getting used to calling it “Indeed Tower” instead of Block 71, but either way we’re pretty jazzed about this 36-floor office-and-retail outfit by Trammell Crow Company. It’s going to be one of the most iconic buildings on the city’s new skyline, and the public market-type space inside the restored historic post office building next door is a pretty fascinating idea we can’t wait to see take shape in earnest. Hey, have you watched this video?
300 Colorado
Photo by James Rambin.
Basically, 300 Colorado is a 32-story office tower with a steakhouse on the ground floor. We like its exterior quite a bit, with dark metal mullions for the windows and an interesting mirrored exterior. What color is it? Who knows?
405 Colorado
Photo by James Rambin.
It’s kinda hard to get a good photo of this one, but the core of the building hasn’t gone up very far yet anyway. If you recall, 405 Colorado, a 25-floor office project by developers Brandywine, has sort of an interesting shape — personally, we call it the “Molar Tower.”
Block 185
Photo by James Rambin.
The 35-story Block 185 office tower by Trammell Crow Company — set to be the new home of Google, a company you may have heard of — sports one of downtown’s more iconic upcoming designs by architects Pelli Clarke Pelli. We’re obviously very excited for the tower, but we’re also pretty excited about its pit, which is very deep at the moment.
Fifth & Brazos
Photo by James Rambin.
Speaking of pits, the 32-story hotel and residential tower going up at Fifth and Brazos Streets courtesy of Chicago-based developer Magellan has just about filled its substantial pit with the subterranean workings of its foundation and underground parking. It looks pretty neat over there right now, so go find a gap in the fence like we did and take a gander.
The Quincy
Photo by James Rambin.
If you look over at the bottom left corner of the Quincy building’s rapidly-growing shell at the corner of Red River and Davis Streets, you’ll notice it’s got a snazzy logo for its amusing name — it’s just so posh, you know? This 30-story tower by the folks at Endeavor Real Estate Group is actually pushing the Rainey Street District forward in a way, with 78,000 square feet of office space in addition to the more traditional residential units. People like working where they play, it seems — and I suppose they could live there too.
Alexan Capital
Photo by James Rambin.
This 29-floor apartment tower by the tight-lipped folks at Trammell Crow Residential is finally poking out of the ground at 700 East 11th Street, and we’re excited to see this one go up because it’s got a brick exterior, much rarer than the typical glass and steel jobs. This one was pretty hard to get a solid picture of, but we hope you get the idea.
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