AUSTIN | Millennium Rainey | 99 FEET | 8 FLOORS | Complete

[jngreenlee]

Looks scary, I'm not going in there...

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by paul78701

Speaking of construction on Rainey...does anybody have any idea when the city is supposed to start the sidewalk improvements along the street?

I notice they got one side of the sidewalks done, with the western side of Rainey St. still to do.

[Cd1076]

They've finished the sidewalks on the Western side of Rainey all the way to Blackheart if I'm not mistaken. They were doing finish work on the sidewalks in front of G'Raj Mahal last week.

[bearinaustin]

Originally Posted by Cd1076

They've finished the sidewalks on the Western side of Rainey all the way to Blackheart if I'm not mistaken. They were doing finish work on the sidewalks in front of G'Raj Mahal last week.

When I was there Friday, it looks like they removed the parking on one side of the street and put up plastic white dividers for now.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by ohhey

Apparently continuing the trend of developers cheaping out and leaving floor plates exposed.

What does this mean? I was going to PM you this question but since this is a public forum I figured maybe there are others here who don't know what an "exposed floor plate is." I'm just a gawker, no construction or architectural knowledge base.

[lzppjb]

I believe it means you can see the concrete floors when viewing a building from the side. Like the didn't cover it with cladding of any sort.

[Urbannizer]

[HoustonHorns]

Thanks for the update on this one.

[Urbannizer]

3/11

[the Genral]

I have never been a fan of the Millennium, not that I think the building is awful, but because of the waste of vertical space there. The only thing impressive about it are the 2 construction cranes. This project belongs at the Domain or La Frontera.

[wwmiv]

My problem with Millennium Rainey doesn't exactly stem from the lack of verticality, but rather the neighborhood character.

I would have been totally fine with a clone of Millennium Rainey in any other part of downtown. It would have been great in the West End, for instance, or in West Campus or even just north of Rainey.

However, Rainey's historic character with the quaint houses and cute atmosphere really makes me hate this development because it necessarily meant getting rid of the atmosphere which precisely makes these types of developments likely in the future. I'd really love it if the city stepped in to help preserve most of the houses by requiring that new developers save them by moving them forward on their lots closer to the streets and then building very narrow point towers in the opened up space between the old houses that can be salvaged. That way we save the historic character of the neighborhood and preserve the history while also moving into the 21st century.

I know that's pretty pie in sky, but I do think some kind of remedy here is necessary.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

My problem with Millennium Rainey doesn't exactly stem from the lack of verticality, but rather the neighborhood character.

I would have been totally fine with a clone of Millennium Rainey in any other part of downtown. It would have been great in the West End, for instance, or in West Campus or even just north of Rainey.

However, Rainey's historic character with the quaint houses and cute atmosphere really makes me hate this development because it necessarily meant getting rid of the atmosphere which precisely makes these types of developments likely in the future. I'd really love it if the city stepped in to help preserve most of the houses by requiring that new developers save them by moving them forward on their lots closer to the streets and then building very narrow point towers in the opened up space between the old houses that can be salvaged. That way we save the historic character of the neighborhood and preserve the history while also moving into the 21st century.

I know that's pretty pie in sky, but I do think some kind of remedy here is necessary.

Pie in the sky or not, I think that's a great idea - history is important, as is progress. Being able to do both simultaneously requires creativity and intentionality.

Note - not all "old" buildings are historical. Think South Lamar and Taco Cabana and every other "Austin icon" that's being lost for the sake of progress.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by drummer

Pie in the sky or not, I think that's a great idea - history is important, as is progress. Being able to do both simultaneously requires creativity and intentionality.

Note - not all "old" buildings are historical. Think South Lamar and Taco Cabana and every other "Austin icon" that's being lost for the sake of progress.

I agree re: second part. Rainey is just... actually worth preserving.

[Tech House]

There's nothing "suburban" about this project. It's taller than suburban apartments, integrates with the neighborhood via street interaction, and it appears to be designed for lining the entire first floor with retail and/or small business. In the older cities of the north/northeast, there are great residential neighborhoods that have similar type of development, and they make for a great atmosphere. It will be a major bonus if there is seating for cafes out front of some of these spaces, though I don't know if the sidewalk will be wide enough.

Point towers make for a nice skyline but they're generally alienating to street level activity. The higher towers in the Rainey district already detract from the cool vibe there.

Lastly, I like projects right along the freeway staying low, so as to provide a nice effect of seeing the whole skyline without having a wall of skyscrapers suddenly jutting up out of nowhere and blocking the view of what's beyond.

[jngreenlee]

I want to hate it, probably because I lived on Rainey 2011-2012. However, I think its only halfway up. I think we do have to wait until the mass is really there. I might be appealing in the end...

[Myomi]

Originally Posted by Tech House

There's nothing "suburban" about this project. It's taller than suburban apartments, integrates with the neighborhood via street interaction, and it appears to be designed for lining the entire first floor with retail and/or small business. It will be a major bonus if there is seating for cafes out front of some of these spaces, though I don't know if the sidewalk will be wide enough.

No one has mentioned "suburban" when discussing this building for a very long time (in this thread it looks like since 2013). It's a bad urban project...period. Please cite where you see that this project has retail lining the entire base of the project, because all that we have seen shows only one restaurant with apartments, leasing, and the garage openings cutting into most supposed "interaction" this building could have with the street. I would love to be corrected and see that they have changed their plans, but as of right now, this project seems to have been designed as cheaply as possible with no respect to the potential and character or the area around it. Hell, as I stated earlier in the discussion, they could of at the very least made the garage opening go onto East Avenue or Driskill St. if they cared at all about the interaction with Rainey Street.

In the older cities of the north/northeast, there are great residential neighborhoods that have similar type of development, and they make for a great atmosphere.

I am not really sure what area in the northeast you are seeing "Texas Donuts" coming into great residential neighborhoods and being an improvement to the area. If you have an example, I would love to see it. Sure, there might be some "blighted" areas that these projects might come into, but wiping out this size block for such a project in the more established, denser neighborhoods is almost impossible to pull off profitably. It also would be something that is opposed by many a NIMBY up here...and it was a great failing of the Rainey Neighboorhood Association for not opposing this project. However, the RNA really does not like most of the bars in the area, so they seemed to be completely willing to watch Lustre go for this monstrosity.

Point towers make for a nice skyline but they're generally alienating to street level activity. The higher towers in the Rainey district already detract from the cool vibe there.

I am not sure what this statement means...could you please elaborate on what a dense, narrow tower does to alienate street activity? Or are you referring to the "point towers" that we have in Austin (AKA Spring) which has a giant podium structure on the bottom that really defeats much of the purpose of a point tower?

[IluvATX]

What's a "Texas Donut"?

[LoneStarMike]

^^

A Fresh Flavor for the Texas Doughnut

In the typical Texas doughnut design, apartments wrap around a central parking garage. At first glance, the design seems to solve a number of suburban planning issues: people can live near their cars, with dedicated parking places requiring a minimal additional outlay of land, yet parking is hidden to passersby.

The garage is like the hole in the doughnut, and the surrounding apartments/retail are the "dough."

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

^^

A Fresh Flavor for the Texas Doughnut




The garage is like the hole in the doughnut, and the surrounding apartments/retail are the "dough."

Ha! Never heard that term. I think the article is referring to suburban growth though, since the only downside would be a lack of walkability or infrastructure, which the Millenium doesn't have. Although the architecture and overall design of this one is pretty lame, I think it will fit in fairly good. It looks better to step up the skyline from 35 anyways. I think the gentrifying neighborhoods in the northeast are undergoing more of a renaissance than complete redevelopment such as Rainey Street.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by Myomi

No one has mentioned "suburban" when discussing this building for a very long time (in this thread it looks like since 2013). It's a bad urban project...period. Please cite where you see that this project has retail lining the entire base of the project...

I'll try to address everything at once. First, I reviewed the entire thread before posting that, so that I could try to catch up on what this project entails. I saw comments tarnishing it with the "suburban" label.

I'm ignorant about the building process, architecture, and most other topics at the core of this forum. So I assumed that the fact that the entire first floor looks totally different from the upper floors (which look like normal residential construction) led me to assume that the first floor spaces would be for retail and/or office use. I'm disappointed to learn that this isn't the case.

How this is similar to older cities in the northeast, it's similar but different. In older cities you see block after block of old residential buildings, usually 3 to umpteen stories high, that are all one solid mass as if it were all one building. I'm not saying this to instruct you because you obviously know what you see in the northeast, so I'm just trying to describe what it is I'm referring to. If it has a name, let me know and I'll use it henceforth. I have no freaking clue how to refer to it.

So what I'm seeing in MR is that it's a solid mass of residential with at least a ground floor restaurant, which feels to me like a traditional urban type of development. Granted, it will be separate from any other buildings but by itself it nevertheless creates a bit of the effect I see in the northeast, which I prefer over the point towers with empty space between them.

Bear in mind that I was only expressing opinions based on vague impressions, a fair amount of ignorance, and a lot of preferences-of-the-moment. In other words, don't take my comments too seriously.