The View From the Top at 70 Rainey

Celebrating its topping out this month, the 34-story 70 Rainey condo tower has assumed the dominant position in the Rainey Street District’s growing skyline. Photo by James Rambin.

70 Rainey, the 34-floor condo tower set to transform the skyline of downtown Austin’s eastern edge as the Rainey Street District’s tallest building, is officially “topped out” this month, with its highest floor poured and ready for finish-out.

A rendering of the expected appearance for the completed 70 Rainey tower. Image: Page / Sackman Enterprises

But even from the ground floor, the building is already an imposing figure on Rainey Street itself:

Left: A current look at the elevation of the building’s base facing Rainey Street.
Right: A rendering of what the side of the building facing Rainey Street should look like upon the building’s completion, with its “hanging gardens” look in full effect. Images: James Rambin / Page

Looking up at 70 Rainey from Rainey Street, with the building’s signature 14-degree twist visible. Photo by James Rambin.

To celebrate, developer Sackman Enterprises hosted a second media tour of the site, giving us the first look at the top-floor view from the building — a lot higher up than we got to go last time, as you’ll see:

The view from the top at 70 Rainey. Photo by James Rambin.

Looking down at the Rainey Street District’s many towers from the top floor of 70 Rainey. Photo by James Rambin.

The tower knows just how good its view is — its condo floors are rotated 14 degrees from the building’s base, a feature the project’s managing director C.J. Sackman Jr. says is to ensure the same stellar perspective of Lady Bird Lake and the downtown skyline for all residents. Unless someone really pulls out all the stops on a building sometime in the future, it’s pretty safe to say 70 Rainey will boast the best view of downtown combined with the landscape of the Hill Country of any residential tower in the city for the foreseeable future.

Looking east from the top floor of the 70 Rainey site. Photo by James Rambin.

The tilted columns of the 10th-floor amenity deck enable the 14-degree turn of the building’s residential section. Photo by James Rambin.

Besides the obvious increase in height since our last visit, one of the most prominent signs of progress on the building is the installation of Brazilian wood paneling on the “ceiling” — more accurately known as a “soffit,” if you want to impress your friends — of the tower’s open-air 10th-floor amenity deck, which you can see a rendering of below:

A rendering of the layout for 70 Rainey’s 10th-floor amenity deck. Image: Page / Sackman Enterprises

The deck is still a long way off from the above rendering, but it’s getting there — and to be honest, the rendering doesn’t actually do justice to the quality of the materials already installed, as you can see in the comparison below:

The rendering of 70 Rainey’s amenity deck on the left technically includes a bit of the Brazilian wood soffit (circled), but as you can see from the photo on the right, it actually looks a lot better in person. Images: Page/ Sackman Enterprises / James Rambin

One last thing — the building will also include a two-story bar and restaurant space, opening to Rainey Street on the ground floor with a large patio area on the floor above. 

The view looking down at Rainey Street from 70 Rainey’s second-floor bar deck. Photo by James Rambin.

Sackman says an announcement about the identity of the business is forthcoming, but it’s pretty obvious from its design and prominence overlooking the street that whatever ends up here will go gangbusters with folks looking to see and be seen — and with the building’s 164 condo units ranging in price from $400,000 to $5 million, that seems like exactly the right tone to strike as the Rainey Street District continues its rapid evolution. The project is expected to be ready for move-in sometime in January of 2019.