AUSTIN | Fairmont Hotel | 595 FEET SPIRE/456 FT ROOF | 37 FLRS | Complete

[the Genral]

Nice update. By my count, there are 13 floors to go plus the roof cap. At least one more crane rise. Should be topped out mid October. So far so good. The glass exterior is making me think this is going to turn out better than I expected, especially after all the render downsizing.

[Colo Designer]

Thank you for the photos Keith. Looks to me like a fun way to spend some of a holiday, looking at and photographing construction.

The level in the photos with the formwork (top) is floor level 24 - minus a 13 - so actually physical floor level 23. The highest occupiable floor level is 36 (actual level 35) so yes they have 12 more floors of concrete to pour. There are two levels of mechanical penthouse and elevator equipment rooms and one more level of glass "crown" enclosing the roof. The spire is almost two hundred feet tall above that. The construction drawings call out the top of the spire at 595' above grade.

[Jdawgboy]

I still can't picture how a spire that tall is going to look on that building so will just have to wait till they put it up.

[Colo Designer]

Jdawg, here's the image that was on the construction drawings for the project, looking at the west walls.

[Jdawgboy]

I should have worded my comment better. What I meant was how it will ultimately look in real life. Renderings can give you a pretty good idea on how the end product will look but it's still only a rendering and can't simulate overall scale and presence in the same way as staning on the corner a block away from the building. Thanks for posting that rendering up anyway. It looks like it's the most detailed rendering that I've seen.


Here's an interesting question that you might be able to answer. Hypothetically speaking, if they ever wanted to expand the hotel in the future, is the tower portion designed in a way that they could add new floors? It would be cool if the spire was an indicator of how high they could possibly go by adding new floors. Just curious because I'm fascinated with buildings which can have new floors built on. I have a theory that the white wing jutting out from the JW Marriott is designed in a way that they could add floors in the future if the need ever arose.

[Colo Designer]

That is something to ponder . . . . I can't say with certainty that the tower is or is not designed for additional floors. If it had been I would have expected to see details in the drawings calling for reinforcing bars to extend above the top of the highest floor slab so columns could be properly connected in the future. There were no such details. Logistically it would be difficult at best. The top three horizontal bands of glass shown in the rendering are screen walls - open to the sky - with steel support structures inside them. It would be difficult to remove those areas of glass, and the supports, to build above.

Since you mentioned your interest in buildings designed to be expanded up, I offer this project in Chicago as one of interest.
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/...?ID=1235&CL=de

[clubtokyo]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I should have worded my comment better. What I meant was how it will ultimately look in real life. Renderings can give you a pretty good idea on how the end product will look but it's still only a rendering and can't simulate overall scale and presence in the same way as staning on the corner a block away from the building. Thanks for posting that rendering up anyway. It looks like it's the most detailed rendering that I've seen.

.

I am also curious of the real life look of the spire, 200ft is tall! I almost feel the spire should be thicker, or its going to look like a big antenna? no?

[Colo Designer]

I agree, it is very thin and will look like an antenna. (5ft dia. at the bottom; 1ft dia. at the top) It's an obviously blatant attempt to get as much notoriety as possible relative to it's height compared to other buildings in Austin. (Gensler's web site proclaims it will be the second tallest building in Austin) As long as there are no antennas attached to the spire it is considered an architectural element and therefore can be considered as part of the building's height.

[hookem]

Colo Designer -- thanks for all the inside info on the buidling! If you don't mind another question...

Do we know if there will be anything interesting about how that 190' spire is installed? Will it be craned up, or lifted by helicopter? In one piece, or multiple pieces?

[Colo Designer]

The drawings show the spire to be fabricated in five pieces and assembled on site. I can't say how they will be lifted into place.

[priller]

Took these on my walk this morning:

[the Genral]

On the 2nd and 3rd pics, 4 floors above the center notch, on the left, it looks like one of the narrow vertical accent panes is out of place. I wonder how difficult its going to be to correct or if anyone even noticed. Nice pics priller.

[Colo Designer]

Thanks to those of you posting photos of the progress. It's almost like being there, minus the humidity.

I'm surprised there's been no more steel erected on the podium since Corvairkeith's photos on 7/4.

[Geckos_Rule]

Man, It should would be awesome if the building was designed to have that gradient in the first picture, instead of it being the clouds.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by Geckos_Rule

Man, It should would be awesome if the building was designed to have that gradient in the first picture, instead of it being the clouds.

That would be cool.

[ATX RE Attorney]

From today:

[KevinFromTexas]

8/1

[corvairkeith]

[The ATX]

Nice update. So it looks like it has ~5 more floors to go. It doesn't stand out in the skyline quite as much as I thought it would. Maybe that ~140' spire will help. But it does an excellent job of blocking the Hilton coming into Downtown from the south.

[tie_guy]

From August 24th





Lookin' pretty sleek and somewhat thin from certain view points. ^_^