AUSTIN | 415 Colorado | 640 FEET | 47 FLOORS

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Originally Posted by mopacs

there are now 3 webcam views for 415 colorado:

https://app.oxblue.com/open/stonelak...38571ba3d05c0b

https://app.oxblue.com/open/stonelak...07ff620216b4a7

https://app.oxblue.com/open/stonelak...2ed229bf836b08


neither of the 3 are currently displaying but you can view them by clicking on the share button at the top and selecting "download image" from the drop-down menu.

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[R1070]

I just want this to go up to hide that horrible building behind it. lol

[kingkirbythe....]

Yes!

[KevinFromTexas]

Actually, 405 Colorado is one of my new favorites. I'm less crazy about that side, but even it is at least different than the usual blank walls of blah.

[MNMike]

I love watching Austin grow...and now the skyline is really batting above a metro the size of Austin! I have been a regular visitor since the late 80s, have family there...but one thing I always said about Austin before buildings taller than the capitol were allowed, and before it took off...Similar to a lot of cities that hadn't seen a ton of development in the 70s and 80s, there was a great old building stock downtown. And a very specific kind of old west stone texas warehouse type of thing....now it seems that Austin is making the same mistakes that so many other cities did in the US in the past. Just clearing all of the old buildings. I am assuming 6th street is protected, and a few select buildings elsewhere maybe? But the warehouse district has just been decimated. And I am very pro development...of course every building isn't worth saving, but I would love to see more facades being saved and built behind at least! You would think that these newly growing cities would have learned from some others not to clear all the old! Anyway...I mostly love what is happening down there, and if y'all knew me you would know I am not one to say such things. I am not out there saying "but it will change the character of the neighborhood". lol. But just something to think about. And obviously, I am not down there, so maybe you guys can fill me in on some protected areas and efforts to keep some historic charm aside from 6th. The hydro plant development is nice...but anything else?

[R1070]

Originally Posted by MNMike

I love watching Austin grow...and now the skyline is really batting above a metro the size of Austin! I have been a regular visitor since the late 80s, have family there...but one thing I always said about Austin before buildings taller than the capitol were allowed, and before it took off...Similar to a lot of cities that hadn't seen a ton of development in the 70s and 80s, there was a great old building stock downtown. And a very specific kind of old west stone texas warehouse type of thing....now it seems that Austin is making the same mistakes that so many other cities did in the US in the past. Just clearing all of the old buildings. I am assuming 6th street is protected, and a few select buildings elsewhere maybe? But the warehouse district has just been decimated. And I am very pro development...of course every building isn't worth saving, but I would love to see more facades being saved and built behind at least! You would think that these newly growing cities would have learned from some others not to clear all the old! Anyway...I mostly love what is happening down there, and if y'all knew me you would know I am not one to say such things. I am not out there saying "but it will change the character of the neighborhood". lol. But just something to think about. And obviously, I am not down there, so maybe you guys can fill me in on some protected areas and efforts to keep some historic charm aside from 6th. The hydro plant development is nice...but anything else?

It's definitely going through what Houston and Dallas did in the late 70s-80s. Luckily, I don't foresee a bust like the other cities went through leading to a lot of cleared lots that ended up as surface parking. Austin is definitely becoming more like Dallas and less "weird".

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by R1070

It's definitely going through what Houston and Dallas did in the late 70s-80s. Luckily, I don't foresee a bust like the other cities went through leading to a lot of cleared lots that ended up as surface parking. Austin is definitely becoming more like Dallas and less "weird".

Any potential bust will not affect Austin the same way Dallas and Houston emptied out. There are a bunch of macro-level factors not at play that led to their historic cores being decimated in ways that cannot and could never affect Austin:

1. Racial dynamics and white flight. Houston and Dallas suffered from decades of disinvestment in their cores, Austin does not have the same demographics and never suffered from the same thing.

2. Size of core. Austin’s truly urban historic core was always small and what abuts are single family home neighborhoods that never entered into a demographic death spiral from lack of children because we have continued to provide new supply throughout the city and never really stopped (again, see reason 1). There simply aren’t enough likely targets in a dense enough area for a hollowing out anywhere to occur on the scale that Dallas and Houston experienced.

3. Economic structure. Austin’s economy has pretty much always (the 80s savings and loan crisis excepted) been better than the state’s or the country’s partly because a larger portion of our economy is in education and government. Those things insulate us because they, especially in hard times, draw money from elsewhere and inject it into the local economy.

Besides: we should be wanting a bust. Bring things back down to reality and get rid of speculation.

[photoLith]

Still pissed those historic buildings were torn down, even though they weren’t beautiful; they still gave character to the street. Shame they didn’t at least save the facades and incorporate them into the tower.

[MNMike]

Yeah, I wasn't talking about potential empty lots really...I was more talking about the clearing of the substantial old building stock in what was a small historic core to begin with (as someone else mentioned) for new buildings. As I said, not everything is worth saving of course...but I think there will be regret that at least some more facades weren't saved. But oh well.

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[BVictor1]

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Originally Posted by randalls

Progress as of 5.3.23