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Archives for November 2013

Waller Park Place Submits Site Plan for 3 Towers

Jude Galligan | November 25, 2013 |

At  ~1,400,000 square feet Waller Park Place, a three tower mixed-use plan is the largest private development ever proposed in downtown Austin (correct me in the comments if I’m wrong).  It’s the vision of the Sutton Company, who formally filed their site plan approval application with the City of Austin last week.

Back in September, Downtown Austin Blog first revealed the concept  for the 3 acre tract stretching from Cesar Chavez to Davis Street, hugging Waller Creek.  Then it was being called Waller Center and seemed really to be just a conceptual vision.

wallerparkplacesiteplan1
Birds eye view shows planned orientation of three towers along Waller Creek

Below is what we know (note these numbers have gone up since Waller Center was announced in September and could still change)

  • Tower A – Office, 25+ stories, on the corner of Red River and Cesar Chavez
  • Tower B – Apartments, 50+ stories, internal on the site
  • Tower C – Hotel/Condo, 40+ stories, at Red River & Davis
  • Target FAR is 10:1
  • The architect is the IBI Group
  • No phasing is contemplated – all three towers built simultaneously
  • The site is part of the Waller Creek TIF district

With Block 1 (tbd) anticipated, and Trinity Tower (tbd) being conceptualized, Waller Park Place would be the last opportunity in downtown Austin for waterfront development with protected lake views.

WallerParkPlaceCrudeMassing5
Our own crude drawings showing how the new towers could fit into the skyline

Above and below are a couple of crude massing-drawings I made for each tower to help view the relative dimensions and heights of the three towers, and to help us see how these buildings will fit into the skyline.

WallerParkPlaceCrudeMassing3
Looking south – our own crude drawings showing how the new towers could fit into the skyline
Proposed three-tower Waller Park Place at Red River & Cesar Chavez

Filed Under: downtown austin, Downtown Austin Districts, Rainey Street District Tagged With: waller park place

List of Google Fiber Proposed “Community Connection” Sites Released

Fred Schmidt | November 20, 2013 |

In an update to the story below… Austin City Council elected to postpone adoption of the List of 100 Community Connection Sites until its Dec. 12th meeting saying they wanted to review and tweak the list some more with Google.  KUT has more on Council activity here.

Also floating around out there in the Fibersphere is this post from Google Fiber Chief, Mark Strama, that discusses how the construction process is being envisioned as it makes its way around the city starting sometime mid 2014.

ORIGINAL STORY – Here is a link to the PDFs of the LIST & Council RESOLUTION of Proposed Google Fiber Community Connection Sites coming before City Council tomorrow, November 21st.

And here are those sites neatly MAPPED courtesy of KUT.

After spending only about five minutes reviewing the list, some inexplicable glaring omissions would include:

  • University of Texas – the 40 acres and other facilities like the Pickle research campus, ATI, IC2, etc.
  • Austin Community College – all of their campuses and, in particular, the new Highland Center that will be a major central city magnet for the tech and creative industries over the next 5+ years.
  • Austin Studios – film and production facilities on East 51st St
  • Hospitals in our emerging health care services growth cluster
  • …and no doubt much more!

How is this possible? These are all mega bandwidth users and fit the criteria for inclusion in the Community Connectedness program of public service locations intended for free Fiber service.  St. Edward’s, Huston-Tillotson, Concordia are all on there – appropriately – but not UT or ACC.  Seriously?

Filed Under: around town, austin neighborhoods, city council, development, downtown austin, life in austin Tagged With: Austin, Community Connections, Google, Google Fiber

Austin Bike Share Coming in December – 11 Downtown Area Hubs

Jude Galligan | November 20, 2013 |

It has been a long time coming, but the the first 11 bike share locations in Austin, opening next month, were announced last week.

As expected the bike locations are all located in and around downtown, with nothing north of 11th St.

B-Cycle, the bike provider, has launched an official website — austin.bcycle.com —  touting the official launch as Dec. 21. The website also has an interactive Google-hybrid map of the bike share locations.

I have no bone to pick with any of the install choices, but do lament that they will not have kiosks planned in the initial phase at parking-challenged Barton Springs Pool and the Rainey Street District. (*cough* Put one at the MACC. *cough*).

The website says that the entire 40 station system, which is still in the planning stage, will be completely online and available for bike check out by March 1, 2014.   In the near term, buildings with the closest access to the bike kiosks are the Spring Condos, W Hotel Residences, 5 Fifty Five, and the Plaza Lofts.

[Read more…] about Austin Bike Share Coming in December – 11 Downtown Area Hubs

Filed Under: austin lifestyle, downtown austin Tagged With: austin bike share

Trinity Tower: Planning a 39 Story, 350 Unit Highrise

Jude Galligan | November 12, 2013 |

Last year we discovered planning efforts for an apartment tower with the working name of “Trinity Place.”   The forlorn metal building on the corner of Trinity and Cesar Chavez was acquired by World Class Capital Group.

Since then, there hasn’t been a peep out of the site leaving many of us wondering what would happen there.  We’ve now discovered some proof-of-life based on public records filed by the engineering team.

99trinity_current2
corner of Trinity @ Cesar Chavez

The name “Trinity Place” has been scrapped, it is now dubbed “99 Trinity Tower” and is being proposed as a mixed-use residential skyscraper seven stories taller than the neighboring Four Season Residences.

The applicant is proposing a 39-story tower with ~14,000 square feet of restaurant on the ground level.  Those are unchanged specs from last year.  Above that, the first 8 floors will be dedicated for parking, with the remaining floors being dedicated to about 350 residential units.

Even with the Lakeside Apartments to the south, the structured parking garage will allow clear lake views for most of the residential units above.

The project is proposing Great Streets standards along Trinity St., and to build a hike and bike trail to connect to the existing Lady Bird Lake Trail.

While we know what is being proposed, it still remains to be seen if it will come to fruition in the end.  The applicant is trying to nail down the base floor-to-area ratio (FAR) provided by the zoning, and navigate restrictions within the Waterfront Overlay “North Shore Central” district and will have to wait for the city, which could take some time if history serves as a guide.

The ball is rolling on this site.  The demolition permit was issued to scrape the dilapidated metal structure for whatever lands there.  We are excited to see more.

***Below, DAB has mocked up a building envelope showing [extremely crudely!] how a 39 story building could fit onto the site, and how it would add to downtown Austin skyline.

99trinity_massing_crude
a crude massing by DAB of how a 39 story building would fit on the 99 Trinity site
99trinity_massing_crude2
At 39 stories, the tower would be taller than the neighboring Four Seasons Residences

Filed Under: Downtown Austin Districts, Downtown Austin lofts, condos, apartments, Railyard District

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