austin skyline

As the W Hotel & Residences continues to rise, the developers have been busy creating new renderings of the high visibility second street project.

The renderings look great -- in fact, they make you wonder how they produce renderings this good for a building that does not yet exist.

Image by Jana Lelex Momo’s Ninth Anniversary Showcase
Thursday, August 27 - Sunday, August 30
Momos (618 W 6th St)

For those who feel that the heart of downtown Austin is the aging Green water treatment plant, today is a sad day.

After 83 years, the Green plant has been decommissioned as a first step to redevelopment of the prime site just north of Ladybird lake.

Today, the City of Austin offically selected Trammell Crow, Constructive Ventures, and USAA toredevelop the six acre Green Water Treatment Plant site into a dense multi-use extention of downtown.

As part of the deal, the development team will pay the city $57.9 million for the right to develeop the prime site.

There is much speculation about the state of the Austin condo market. With lots of new projects, a national housing crisis, and no precedent for high-rise development in downtown Austin, the common wisdom is that all the new projects will fail.

In a new report on the Austin housing market, Texas economist Ray Perryman analyzes the future of the downtown Austin condo market.

With 40,000 new people moving to Austin each year and fewer than 4,000 downtown units planned over the next 5 years, Perryman believes that the market for downtown condos will remain strong.

Today, The Frost Bank Tower looms across the Austin skyline with a singular presence. While it may look like the world's largest nose hair trimmer, it stands 120 feet taller than any other building in the city of Austin.

Of the top ten tallest buildings in Austin, only three -- Frost, 300 W 6th, and the Hilton -- were built in the last decade.

One of today's ten tallest buildings – the Texas State Capital — was completed nearly 120 years ago in 1888.

Speaking of the Capital, Austin must be one of the largest cities in the U.S.

The 21c Museum & Condos moved a step closer to reality this week. The project, a 44-story tower which will combine a museum, hotel, and condos in a very attractive structure on Third and Brazos, received approval from the Austin Design Commission.

Next, the Austin Planning Commission will review the project on September 11 before it's final review by the City Council.

Given the buildings strong support, it seems to be well positioned for approval.

Here is the summary from the Statesman:

With more than a dozen high-rise projects currently in the planning or construction phases, Austin's skyline will change fast.

This composite image (source unknown) provides a sense of the scale of the different projects. Note that the Congress Condos has been renamed the Austonian and is currently planned at 55 stories -- about the height of the Tom Stacy project at 5th and Congress.

The Frost Bank Building, sometimes referred to as the world's largest nose hair trimmer, will no longer dominate the Austin skyline.