An illustration looking north towards the finished Indeed Tower, formerly known as Block 71. Image: Page
Austin, it appears the office tower currently rising at 200 West Sixth Street has found a new name. Previously known only as Block 71 after its block number from Austin’s original downtown plan, the website for developer Trammell Crow Company, some other recent press releases, and the news coverage resulting from those press releases now all include the name Indeed Tower for the 36-story project that’s currently on track to become the city’s tallest office building when it’s finished in March 2021.
Lacking any “Indeed Tower”-branded images for the building, we had to take matters into our own hands. Image: TCC
This is perhaps not the most jaw-dropping scoop we’ve ever come across — after all, job search company Indeed has reportedly leased the tower’s top ten floors — but it’s a change worth noting to avoid any confusion moving forward, considering how many times we’ve called this project Block 71.
Situated in the epicenter of Austin’s CBD, Indeed Tower will deliver a vibrant mixed-use environment with a prominent 6th Street address through its three main components: a 683,000-square-foot Class AA office tower with ground floor retail, a historic 1914 post office re-positioned into a 25,000-square-foot retail/restaurant destination, and a 20,000-square-foot urban greenspace.
At 36 stories tall, the office building will stand as the tallest and largest office tower in downtown Austin and offer tenants an unparalleled experience through its extensive office amenities, including a fitness center, dedicated conference center and outdoor terraces. Indeed Tower’s floorplates, at an average size of 33,000 square feet, will be among the largest in the market, making the project attractive to the growing tech tenant population while maintaining flexibility to appeal to more traditional office users.
New name aside, we’re big fans of the project and its many plans for transforming its block, perhaps the most interesting of which is the restoration of the very attractive and architecturally somewhat underrated former post office at Claudia Taylor-Johnson Hall, revealing the big factory-style rear window of its old mail-sorting room from behind a now-demolished parking garage and converting that space into some sort of food hall or marketplace-type environment. Just look at that window:
This window’s great! And soon, we’ll actually be able to see it — once the project’s finished, it will look out onto the project’s outdoor plaza space, which replaces the (thankfully already demolished) parking garage seen on the right side of this image. Photo by James Rambin.
Though we’ve spilled plenty of virtual ink on the various design features on the way at Indeed Tower — okay, still getting used to that name — we also thought we’d draw your attention to three renderings of the building’s very nice outdoor plaza space we hadn’t seen before, all courtesy of the locals at Campbell Landscape Architecture:
Looking northwest-ish across the terraced outdoor plaza space on the northwest corner of the Indeed Tower block. Image: Campbell Landscape Architecture
Just a slightly higher angle of roughly the same area. Image: Campbell Landscape Architecture
In this last perspective, you can see the window of Claudia Taylor-Johnson Hall on the far left. Can you believe this area used to be covered by a parking garage? Image: Campbell Landscape Architecture
“Indeed Tower,” perhaps more descriptive than “Block 71” though not necessarily the snappiest of titles, really makes us wonder — will the similarly-named Block 185 project, its unbuilt 35 floors already leased entirely by Google, follow in this building’s footsteps by eventually rebranding itself as “Google Tower?” For that matter, what about the 300 Colorado office building, also under construction as we speak — will its single tenant, Parsley Energy, eventually lead to a “Parsley Tower?”
In contrast to the many wacky names of residential projects — “The Quincy” being perhaps our favorite example — this sort of naming asceticism is not uncommon in the office world, often reaching the amusing minimalist effect of Google’s current home downtown in a tower only known by its address of 500 West Second Street.
“Indeed Tower” ain’t bad, but it’s certainly never going to beat “The Quincy.” Image: Endeavor Real Estate Group
Still, our office betting pool is holding out for something a little more interesting at Google’s Block 185. In the end, no matter what official title the tenants slap on that building or any other, its name on the streets is something entirely different and not necessarily predictable — just like how we hear “Jenga Tower” from Austinites about ten times more often than “The Independent,” we’ve certainly seen “Sail Tower” thrown around a lot lately in reference to Block 185 and its striking sailboat-esque design. Do you think that nickname will stick? It’s got character, at least.
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