AUSTIN | Avenir (Formerly Dorsey) | 170 Feet | 15 Floors | Complete

[Jdawgboy]

I'm just glad that Austin is not like the rest of Texas and I'd like to keep it that way too.

But back to the issue at hand, I'd say this particular incarnation is dead.

[resansom]

New rendering:

Two towers - one 16 stories and one 12 stories. Looks nice...

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by resansom

New rendering:

Two towers - one 16 stories and one 12 stories. Looks nice...

I still fail to see how there would be any difference to the neighborhood if both buildings were the same height. Ridiculousness.

[drummer]

^ I agree 100%...I'm a bit confused by that as well.

[urbancore]

If you can't put buildings/housing on a major highway, where in the WORLD are you supposed to put them? The ANC blows me away. We need housing bad, all housing. The ANC should be ashamed of themselves.

I really find it hard to believe that late a night, when they are alone with their thoughts....opponents (anti-density crowd) of projects like this, don't think to themselves that they might just be wrong. Surely they are not that stupid.....bull-headed yes. I know when I'm wrong, I am sometimes tough to admit it. But I know.

The solution for not enough housing is more housing.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

If you can't put buildings/housing on a major highway, where in the WORLD are you supposed to put them? The ANC blows me away. We need housing bad, all housing. The ANC should be ashamed of themselves.

I really find it hard to believe that late a night, when they are alone with their thoughts....opponents (anti-density crowd) of projects like this, don't think to themselves that they might just be wrong. Surely they are not that stupid.....bull-headed yes. I know when I'm wrong, I am sometimes tough to admit it. But I know.

The solution for not enough housing is more housing.

First, let me say that I absolutely agree with you.

Here's my take on what *may* be going on in their minds as I consider another example:

My dad lives in a small town that is incredibly anti-growth (but they're growing, just like everyone else, due to their proximity to the Austin metro area). Some of the "old timers" oppose most things related to change, in general. Their solution to growth is to quit building infrastructure for the added population because it would invite more population...so the opposite of "build it and they will come" then becomes "don't build it and they won't come"...which obviously lacks all sorts of logic, as we're seeing with the Austin area. The "10,000 added cars" (which is fabricated) would become a million if everyone built in the suburbs and drove in.

[the Genral]

But on the positive side, for me anyway, at least the 2 buildings are distinctively different by virtue of the height. I don't like short twin towers. I know they wouldn't have been exact twins, but they would have been close enough to bother me a little. I do agree with all the above posts. But I didn't think the reduced height on one of the buildings was to improve visability, but to reduce the number of units thus reducing traffic, which is a big concern to the neighbors. I think the developers are trying their best to appease everyone. Overall, the new renders look pretty nice.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

If you can't put buildings/housing on a major highway, where in the WORLD are you supposed to put them? The ANC blows me away. We need housing bad, all housing. The ANC should be ashamed of themselves.

I really find it hard to believe that late a night, when they are alone with their thoughts....opponents (anti-density crowd) of projects like this, don't think to themselves that they might just be wrong. Surely they are not that stupid.....bull-headed yes. I know when I'm wrong, I am sometimes tough to admit it. But I know.

The solution for not enough housing is more housing.

It is sad, unfortunate and frustrating. Vistiing Houston over the weekend it is a sight to see multiple downtowns on the horizon. Cities like Miami are the the ones we should be replicating:

http://www.governing.com/columns/urb...ification.html

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by drummer

First, let me say that I absolutely agree with you.

Here's my take on what *may* be going on in their minds as I consider another example:

My dad lives in a small town that is incredibly anti-growth (but they're growing, just like everyone else, due to their proximity to the Austin metro area). Some of the "old timers" oppose most things related to change, in general. Their solution to growth is to quit building infrastructure for the added population because it would invite more population...so the opposite of "build it and they will come" then becomes "don't build it and they won't come"...which obviously lacks all sorts of logic, as we're seeing with the Austin area. The "10,000 added cars" (which is fabricated) would become a million if everyone built in the suburbs and drove in.

I get it, but we should be allowed to develop and build as many as possible adjacent to a bloody interstate. I don't advocate building these between 2 single family homes. Who cares what goes next to a highway? I think it is very exclusionary, elitist, non-welcoming. I live in Zilker and I say, the more the merrier. I have lived central for 30 plus years, still takes me exactly as long as it always did to get to the places I frequent. I stay in my lane, though.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by the Genral

But on the positive side, for me anyway, at least the 2 buildings are distinctively different by virtue of the height. I don't like short twin towers. I know they wouldn't have been exact twins, but they would have been close enough to bother me a little.

I agree, I think the height difference is very nice in the latest rendering. It works better aesthetically.

RE: anti-new-housing no-growthers, the thought process that leads one to conclude that "if we don't build it, they won't come" is pretty difficult to grasp. If an abundance of affordable housing is the cause of growth then Detroit must be the fastest growing city in the USA. Oh, it's not? Well, I'll be...

[lzppjb]

What's the downside exactly?

If the anti-growthers get what they want, and it all goes to crap and people leave, native Austinites who stick it out will be left with a downtown area full of beautiful buildings and parks. The prices would come down and we could all afford to move to an area we may not have been able to previously afford.

If anti-growthers don't get what they want, and Austin keeps growing, then by not allowing for increases in housing, things will get overcrowded and more expensive.

[Jdawgboy]

The whole idea of "if you don't build it, they won't come" is complete nonsense. It doesn't work...

We did this in the 70s and 80s and it didn't work...

The one thing that inadvertently came out of that experiment which ironically actually pushed us to change the way we grow is to focus on the core by building up. We don't have expressways surrounding DT which is a good thing. The problem is that it came out this way for the wrong reasons. In the end they didn't stop the city from growing, instead the city boomed even more.

My experience (like most people) is that being proactive is a better way to deal with an issue than being reactive. Why fight something that is inevitable? Instead work to lessen its effects rather than resisting.

[drummer]

^ That's more my view as well. Work with developers, city planners, neighborhood associations to make the best of what is going to come...and expecting a small-town feel in the core or next to the core of one of the fastest growing metros in the country is simply illogical.

[hereinaustin]

Dang. This project would have been fantastic for the area. Ora Houston is a dummy and the Austin code is seriously stupid. Our code system is way too restrictive and the whole process is keeping us from maximizing development.

Austin developer drops rezoning request for One Two East towers

The developer behind an effort to build two tall apartment towers next to Interstate 35 in East Austin has withdrawn his request for zoning changes that would have made the high-rise project possible.

Representatives of the developer for One Two East filed the withdrawal letter late Wednesday, bringing an end to the contentious fight with the historically African-American neighborhoods that surround the site, which had feared the project would intensify the gentrification that has pushed many longtime residents out of their homes.

[clubtokyo]

I was excited for this project, I think buildings near highways is cool. :/

[austlar1]

Not too many African Americans left in that adjacent neighborhood, but there are plenty of well-off newly arrived (past ten years or so) hipster/yuppy Nimbys who ought to know better. That project should have gotten a green light as originally proposed. I hope those folks are happy with a semi-abandoned shopping center and a garbage strewn parking lot because that is what they'll be looking at for a good while longer. Very sad state of affairs, IMHO.

[KevinFromTexas]

So basically the people complaining the most that this project would have changed the neighborhood have themselves changed the neighborhood the most.

[urbancore]

I will use this example from now on in all my arguments with Nimbys about how stupid they and there beliefs are.

This is infuriating, and as far as I'm concerned......Ora can pound sand.

[Flatiron]

I pity the NIMBYs. They're stuck with their inward thinking and will have to be happy with having less of everything in the places they live. Ultimately though, they will eventually realize they're getting left behind as society progresses.

[drummer]

^ I think that's the main thing, and Kevin's point is spot-on also. Development will happen in various places as Austin continues to grow - these folks are later going to complain that they were passed up on development opportunities...