Austin | Hanover Republic Square | 516 Feet | 44 Floors | Complete

[_Matt]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

I think your concern here is that the concrete strip will be visible from the south over the top of the Hotel ZaZa, which is 24 floors, while this strip of concrete on this tower is 30 floors. However, the Hotel ZaZa is 305 feet tall, while the concrete strip is 307 feet high. That's going to be a pretty dense block with three high rises on it, and it's fairly unlikely that the concrete strip will be all that visible from the south. The "best view" of it will likely be from the southwest if you're far enough away, you might see it above the roof of The Plaza Lofts adjacent to it. I don't think it'll be visible at all from the south or southeast since it'll basically the same height as the Hotel ZaZa.

The 30th floor of this building will be 307 feet 2 inches, according to the elevations.

Thanks for the actual elevation numbers, which indeed suggest that the concrete wall was incorporated to match the hotel across the alley.

Actually, rather than concern, I think it is a nice touch to take into account the building's surroundings.

My guess would be that it has to do with the percentage of allowable glass based on fire code.

This is an interesting theory as well. Maybe we will never know!

[Austin_ez_wider]

Originally Posted by _Matt

The south elevation shows a large section of painted concrete up to about floor 30 (I can't read the elevation).

Immediately south of the building is an alley and then Hotel ZaZa, which has only 24 floors.

So the concrete section doesn't align in height or really match the north face of ZaZa since ZaZa has a cutout in the middle.

So, why do they have a large swatch of the building covered in concrete instead of glass?

Its probably a structural element. Due to the ratio of height to the size of the base, the structure requires a shear wall. 5th & West has 2 exposed.

[Azul]

[delete]

[Austin_ez_wider]

Originally Posted by Azul

this building looks like it would have a typical concrete shear core with possible steel bracing around the exterior as it's primary lateral system.

I don't think there are any high rises downtown using steel bracing? All of our tall buildings are concrete structures.

[Azul]

[delete]

[Austin_ez_wider]

Originally Posted by Azul

There's several! You're right that there's a lot of solely concrete based structures around downtown but as we're getting taller we're starting to see more hybrid structures. I think the Spring (?) uses just interior concrete shear walls for it's lateral system but then there's the Independent that has a concrete core with steel outriggers connected from it to the extremities of the building.

You could be correct about this building and I think my post was potentially wrong/misled, but my main point is I have a hard time thinking an engineer got away with putting a shearwall on the exterior like that. I think the developer knew that another building will butt-up next to it at some point and just elected to cheap out on that area. Again, I could be wrong but I do enjoy speculating about the actual design process of these new buildings

I have been building in Austin for several years and there are no tall hybrid structures here. They are all concrete framed structures with steel accessories like metal stair cases or in the The Independent's case implemented tension bars but only for the comfort of the residences, its was not required.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...5&postcount=46

Step into the time machine and check out the post above with pictures of Spring under construction in 2008. I didn't know but it appears that they have a exposed concrete shear wall on two sides of their building as well.

[The ATX]

We have renderings.




http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=315175

[Echostatic]

This is a great example of a well executed parking podium. Really like the shared design between the crown and the base. This block is going to be really dense... Love it!

[The ATX]

Another one...




Project overview...It gained 2' in height but lost a floor.


http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=315175

[We vs us]

Designwise it ain't much to write home about, but it's not a detriment to the skyline, certainly. The fact that it adds more pure residential to the CBD is a big deal in and off itself.

It's hard to tell from the renderings but it looks like they ended up leaving the Roosevelt room untouched . . . .

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Designwise it ain't much to write home about, but it's not a detriment to the skyline, certainly. The fact that it adds more pure residential to the CBD is a big deal in and off itself.

It's hard to tell from the renderings but it looks like they ended up leaving the Roosevelt room untouched . . . .

They did. The place apparently didn't want to sell. But Hanover had an approved demo permit for it if they did sell. I was surprised to learn that one can obtain an approved demo permit for property one does not own.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by The ATX

They did. The place apparently didn't want to sell. But Hanover had an approved demo permit for it if they did sell. I was surprised to learn that one can obtain an approved demo permit for property one does not own.

Stubborn owners! That gap’s going to give people (me?) OCD fits eventually.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Stubborn owners! That gap’s going to give people (me?) OCD fits eventually.

When the Roosevelt Room initially opened, one of the bar tenders at the time indicated that they were interested in putting a bar on the rooftop. Now that it will be completely surrounded, it could certainly make for an interesting rooftop bar space...if they ever go forward with that anyway.

[The ATX]

Here's a giant version.




Here's a gianter version with a better view of the streetscape.




Here's a giant view of my favorite side.


http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=315175

[the Genral]

I really like it. Nice street interaction, really nice parking podium done right with a proper parking to tower ratio, elegant point tower adding nice height and density. Nifty roof top.
One of the nicest 500 footers to date. I'm so glad its not rectangular.

[smith_atx]

I love it, efficient in the space it'll be in and not ugly (though not memorable).

[myBrain]

Handsome, if not exciting. Good height, fits well with the block, and will provide an intermediate step up from the shorter surrounding structures to the big boys planned for the area. You can also see the strong resemblance to Northshore.

[Syndic]

Now THAT is how you hide/spruce up a parking podium.

Even though it's simple, I actually like the design of it more than some of the other recently-announced projects. It uses white and gray to contrast nicely with the glass. And there's something visually pleasing about the uniformity of the floors (unlike, say, Austin Proper which is a jumbled mess).

I also like that it's not a morbidly obese building that takes up eleventeen city blocks like some other recent projects.

[Syndic]

Man, I just noticed that with Zaza, The Republic, and this building, that area is going have a real foreign "is this Austin? where am I?" feel to it when it's all done. But I guess we're getting more used to that these days.

[zrx299]

The folks on the lower floors have a lovely view of a giant blank wall 8 feet away with their floor-to-ceiling windows.
Yikes...