Austin | Block 185/Google Tower #2 | 594 Feet | 35 Floors | Complete

[gillynova]

Nice vantage point, deerhoof! I like what I'm seeing on Rainey Street also

[JoninATX]

Austin Skyline 2021
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dawilson/

[drummer]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

Austin Skyline 2021
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dawilson/

Beautiful! I can't wait to see this thing finished and lit up.

What is the lighting strategy on this one, by the way?

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by drummer

Beautiful! I can't wait to see this thing finished and lit up.

What is the lighting strategy on this one, by the way?

Its hard to say, from the looks of this rendering it doesn't seem like there will be any sort of lighting on top.



https://pcparch.com/project/block-185/

[KevinFromTexas]

It should be a capital crime for not lighting this one.

I saw Indeed Tower last night from Congress and then along Riverside into Southeast Austin, and man is it really adding to the skyline at night. I'm also really still bothered by The Austonian not being lit. It's too nice a building to not be lit. The Independent, however, is beautiful at night. It's really turned out to be one of the best lit buildings in Austin. I love the purple and green lights. It's a very unique look. I'm totally fine with the W being dark, and actually, I think it takes on a really cool look at night not being lit. I sort of feel the same way about Northshore, but I think it would have looked better with lights. It's really a shame it didn't have LEDs running along the roof and southern facade edges. I also wish that they'd put some lights on the San Jacinto Center again. It had good lighting throughout the 80s and 90s and then went dark sometime after. I like the lighting job the did with 100 Congress when they renovated the lighting, but the lights were malfunctioning last night flickering on and off on the bottom two tiers. It looked like an old neon sign from the 1930s.

[gillynova]

I would absolutely love this building even more if the outline of the curve and crown were lit at night

[sjk]

Amazing pic! It doesn't look like the vertical LED lights are lit on the Facebook office tower though...I believe you should be able to see them from this angle. It really enhances this angle when they are on.

[myBrain]

I mean the curved facade almost seems to glow without any lighting in that picture, I think no matter what it's going to stand out at night. But I be they will do some good lighting. Pelli has a lot of great lighting on his towers. The Petronas in KL have one of the best lighting schemes I've ever seen, and more recently the Salesforce tower is great, and last weekend I saw the Frost tower in SA and it really has a great presence at night.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by corvairkeith

wow wow wow wow wow!!!!!

[enragedcamel]

How are they installing the panels of the "sail" portion? Is it by crane, or with workers on elevators, or from the inside?

[clayton_rogue]

Originally Posted by enragedcamel

How are they installing the panels of the "sail" portion? Is it by crane, or with workers on elevators, or from the inside?

From the inside.

[dgs12895]

I keep imagining how awesome it's going to look on the mornings when Ladybird is engulfed in low-hanging lake fog and it makes it look like this thing is actually on the water.

[corvairkeith]

[KevinFromTexas]

Those are really great.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

Its hard to say, from the looks of this rendering it doesn't seem like there will be any sort of lighting on top.



https://pcparch.com/project/block-185/

They should light up the edges of the sail with LED's. That would make this building AMAZING.

[The ATX]

I think it's safe to say that this is now the most photographed building on this forum.

[clubtokyo]

Will this be the most unique high rise in Texas? I am trying to think of other building, the Rolex headquarters in Dallas is a similar vibe, but not as tall and not next to water.

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by clubtokyo

Will this be the most unique high rise in Texas? I am trying to think of other building, the Rolex headquarters in Dallas is a similar vibe, but not as tall and not next to water.

Outside of our observation towers (TOTA, Reunion), I would safely say YES. The views from the water will never be obstructed and it just has that iconic Frost Tower vibe already. I usually gauge a tower's cool factor with random people who never notice Austin's skyline....and this one is turning heads without even being topped out.

Btw.....do we have a crane point to imagine where this'll top out? 4 more actual floors before mechanical/crown?

ALSO.....I could be totally wrong, but I have a feeling they're going to do a surprise lighting effect on this baby.

[fereLeonart105]

I made a quick visual showing how many floors will still be built.
I find it's convenient to split the building into 5-floor groups where there is a new setback.

Current construction has completed the yellow, green and red setbacks and only has one more floor until the the purple setback is done. After that there is still one more 5-floor group to construct (teal), plus the top of the "sail" on the west side of the building.

By my estimation there is roughly about 6 floors to go, plus the decorative sail. Exciting!

[gillynova]

Thank you for that, fereLeonart105.

Seems like this should be topped out by maybe July?