Austin | The Linden (17th & Guadalupe) | 333 Feet | 28 Floors | T/O

[drummer]

Originally Posted by Sterling

West Capitol.

I actually kind of like that.

[Echostatic]

Making the rounds in the local news:

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/aust...tol/1815582222

[The ATX]

Here it is. This is what that area needs. Imagine the Hilton Garden 17th St Hotel right next to it.


http://www.rhodepartners.com/

[The ATX]

Zoomed in...

[Jdawgboy]

Is it just me or does it look like a cross between 7Rio and 70 Rainey?...

[The ATX]

I can see that. I'm calling this a starter condo tower for the neglected NW corner of downtown (or whatever the area ends up being called.)

[MichaelB]

Simple... not bad... new modern generic. ... won't mind looking at that.
Plus, the ally side ( which I'm sure Is blank if not bland ) will be covered by the hotel!
Win Win.!

[Echostatic]

Looks like a baby 70 Rainey - good height for Uptown. Along with the HGI this will be a nice cluster of towers.

[KevinFromTexas]

I like it. But yeah, it's like Seven and 70 Rainey had a baby. ha

[gillynova]

Now I see what you guys mean by building on top of a parking garage lol

[Sigaven]

Why on earth can't developers put some money into designing the parking podiums to be nice anymore? It seems like we used to. Front Tower, Austonian, Silicon Labs. Even the 360 is decent. Now we have stuff like this and the Independent that doesn't even try to have a nice design - just wrap it in a metal screen and be done with it. It's the part of the building that's closest to the pedestrian. Can't we put a little money into making this part of the building at least not completely soulless and dreadful?

[NYC2ATX]

I know a lot of you don't care for the proliferation of parking podiums in so many of these new developments, but if the tower-on-stilts-at-transition-floor-platform vibe is becoming a new common design vernacular in Austin, I wouldn't be mad at all. A lot of these buildings have a feel of floating on their podiums and I think it's unique. We still get new retail space and reconstruction of the street level to great streets standards in all of these new projects.

Of course, at some point, Austin may be faced with a challenge of having to retrofit these podiums for different uses if transit improvements and cultural shifts deem them excessive one day, but until then this is far from the worst solution to parking requirements. I always say, it's fortunate that Austin boomed now when smarter urban growth strategies are the modus operandi, instead of the '70s and '80s like Dallas and Houston, when bulldozing whole blocks for seas of parking was viewed as perfectly fine.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

Why on earth can't developers put some money into designing the parking podiums to be nice anymore? It seems like we used to. Front Tower, Austonian, Silicon Labs. Even the 360 is decent. Now we have stuff like this and the Independent that doesn't even try to have a nice design - just wrap it in a metal screen and be done with it. It's the part of the building that's closest to the pedestrian. Can't we put a little money into making this part of the building at least not completely soulless and dreadful?

It looks like another Rhode special.

[JACKinBeantown]

Right on the edge of a CVC.


http://imgur.com/lTGm6

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Au...!4d-97.7430608

[ahealy]

I like this! Finally a nice activator for "uptown". I see this area being the next new hot zone for the 20s. Mark my words

[The ATX]

That was quick. Rhode Partners took down the rendering. It is unusual for the first rendering of a project to come from the architect as in this case. It's usually the developer.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by NYC2ATX

I know a lot of you don't care for the proliferation of parking podiums in so many of these new developments, but if the tower-on-stilts-at-transition-floor-platform vibe is becoming a new common design vernacular in Austin, I wouldn't be mad at all. A lot of these buildings have a feel of floating on their podiums and I think it's unique. We still get new retail space and reconstruction of the street level to great streets standards in all of these new projects.

Of course, at some point, Austin may be faced with a challenge of having to retrofit these podiums for different uses if transit improvements and cultural shifts deem them excessive one day, but until then this is far from the worst solution to parking requirements. I always say, it's fortunate that Austin boomed now when smarter urban growth strategies are the modus operandi, instead of the '70s and '80s like Dallas and Houston, when bulldozing whole blocks for seas of parking was viewed as perfectly fine.

You know I was recently contemplating that maybe newer parking podiums like these could be designed in a way that when the time comes, the parking levels could be removed then the podium could be repurposed as office/residential/hotel. It's something to look into at least.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

You know I was recently contemplating that maybe newer parking podiums like these could be designed in a way that when the time comes, the parking levels could be removed then the podium could be repurposed as office/residential/hotel. It's something to look into at least.

The deck to deck (floor to floor) height of a garage (9' to 10') is much lower than the office portion (13' to 15'), so it makes it difficult to do. The drop ceiling needs a good 1.5' to 2' of space for the above-ceiling mechanical stuff - HVAC boxes and ducts, VAV air handlers, lights, etc. You could end up with Floor 7.5 from Being John Malcovich.

However, some developers do plan for that in the design process. It costs more but your building's parking garage is less likely to become functionally obsolete in the future. SXSW had their structural engineer design their parking garage in such a way that it can be converted to office space if necessary.

From a Nov 2016 Towers article about SXSW Center (bold is mine):

There will be structured parking from levels two to six. There was some discussion about whether this was too much parking, given the growing use of Uber, cycling (there will be bike parking, a shower and lockers for tenants) and the potential impact of driverless cars. However, it was noted that the parking levels are being designed to allow them to be converted to office space, if need be.

https://austin.towers.net/sxsw-the-t...nd-steel-wave/

• Video Link

[Max Tower]

Originally Posted by AusTxDevelopment

The deck to deck (floor to floor) height of a garage (9' to 10') is much lower than the office portion (13' to 15'), so it makes it difficult to do. The drop ceiling needs a good 1.5' to 2' of space for the above-ceiling mechanical stuff - HVAC boxes and ducts, VAV air handlers, lights, etc. You could end up with Floor 7.5 from Being John Malcovich.

However, some developers do plan for that in the design process. It costs more but your building's parking garage is less likely to become functionally obsolete in the future. SXSW had their structural engineer design their parking garage in such a way that it can be converted to office space if necessary.

From a Nov 2016 Towers article about SXSW Center (bold is mine):

https://austin.towers.net/sxsw-the-t...nd-steel-wave/

• Video Link

Sadly, a Gensler associate informed me last year that though the possibility of conversion was being discussed at the time of the 2016 article, this is no longer really the case:

The garage floor plates are flat, so technically they can be converted, but the floor-to-ceiling height is only 10’, which won’t work with current mechanical requirements. There’s one garage floor where the ceiling height is 11’, so that might still be a possibility. But because of the overall height restriction due to capitol view, we ended up compressing everything to cram as many floors into the building as possible.

Still waiting patiently for Austin's first explicitly conversion-minded parking structure. Surely someone will be forward-thinking enough to make it happen soon.

[The ATX]

Story from ABJ and a couple new renderings:

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n..._news_headline