Unit owners at downtown Austin’s Brazos Lofts condominiums reportedly signed off last year on a $55 million buyout of the building, and according to information shared with TOWERS by confidential industry sources, the closing and distribution of those funds is anticipated this week in preparation for the site’s eventual redevelopment by its soon-to-be new owners,…
design
See Inside Natiivo, the Rainey Street District’s ‘Home-Sharing’ Experiment
The “home-sharing” concept of the 33-floor Natiivo tower, now under construction at 48 East Avenue on the edge of downtown Austin’s ever-growing Rainey Street District, will introduce some new forces to the local hospitality and short-term rental market. In fact, if we were advertising the project, the first of its kind in the city, we might describe its potential effects…
The Independent, Austin’s Tallest Tower, Will Soon Light Its Crown
The Independent, a recently-completed downtown Austin condo tower that’s currently the city’s tallest at 58 floors and better known to many as the “Jenga Tower,” is only a few short weeks away from switching on a long-rumored lighting system for the illumination of its crown. In fact, it turns out the actual lights were installed at the top…
On 17th Street, Historic Austin Architecture Hides in Plain Sight
You don’t need to spend the better part of a decade in architecture school to notice something’s strange about the Rio House Apartments, a 45-unit multifamily building rising four floors at the northeast corner of West 17th and Rio Grande Streets. It’s not often you’ll see a structure with a four-story perforated metal screen surrounding…
Here’s What a Decade of Growth Looks Like on Rainey Street
The boom of downtown Austin condo and apartment development in the Rainey Street District had already started by 2010, but the neighborhood really started rising in the last decade — meaning that in 2020, the district is a full-fledged part of the city’s skyline, with multiple buildings on the way that will push its heights…
How Should Austin Grow in the 2020s?
Happy New Year, Austin! Instead of going to the gym with everyone else or resolving to be nicer on Twitter, we’re taking the dawn of the roaring 2020s as an opportunity to reflect on both how far the city’s growth has come in the decade since 2010, and the direction we’d like to travel in…