The Hills

Austin is starting get some nationwide attention for it's supertalls: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-01-10/in-booming-austin-a-stampede-of-skyscrapers-is-coming

The article can be read by copying and pasting the link in a browser. I only see this comment about the pool: "The penthouse pool will be the tallest pool deck in the entire city, at 830 ft."

From the developer of 321 West Ryan Cos. The photo also has a nice view of the 874' Sixth & Guadalupe tower.

According the CTBUH with a search done on 7/29, the four tallest buildings currently U/C in the US are in Austin and NYC..

Crane #1 is going up today.

The crane base for the first of three Luffers is in place. https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9677907&postcount=2123

We never saw the final elevations for this project, and the final height varied between 848' and 883' depending on the source. But a contractor working on this project sent me the final elevations today, and the official height will be 874'. (I tweeted the drawings and posted them on SSP.) Mopacs at SSP took some photos yesterday showing that this is indeed Austin's new tallest. It will hold that title for about three years when the 98 Red River supertall passes it. That's about how long the Independent held the tallest title until this project passed it. A project known as 3rd & Congress is proposed for as many as 90-stories and likely 1,200'+ in height and would surpass 98 Red River as a future new tallest https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9666243&postcount=2771

Rebar formed for caissons is being stored at one end of the site. Caisson pipes are arriving too.

It looks like rebar has arrived and is being shaped into piers.

Despite the fact that the official ground breaking won't happen until the Fall, the CEO of one of the two developers building this tower says it's officially U/C.

Here's the site from just now. Actually this is not quite half of the site.

The developer is holding off the official ground breaking for whatever reason until the fall. That's roughly when the underground levels will be finished or at least pretty far along.

The site was cleared and excavation of the underground levels started yesterday,

The hotel portion which is in the podium facing the river is going to be a 1 Hotel. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1-hotel-austin-set-to-open-in-2026-301561390.html

One of the City of Austin's many CCTV cameras shows the site. Full on site prep started today. There are at least two excavators, and all the trees were removed. A cement wall that was part of a former parking area is being knocked down as well. Part of the site is out of view. http://cctv.austinmobility.io/image/40.jpg

Three luffing cranes are being used for this project. The 1,230' one is of course the tallest. The other ones are 1,001' and around 500'.

The construction ROW closures were put in place last night. The construction offices are also in place. The tallest building in Texas is ready to start.

Barricades are arriving on site now for the construction ROW closures scheduled to start as soon as Friday.

This one broke ground last week.

Here are the construction offices that were installed this week. Photo by agsatx88 on SSP.

The long term street closures around the site for the start of construction are scheduled to begin in three weeks (May 14th) per a right of way closure permit filed with the City of Austin. Construction trailer offices have been moved onto the surface parking lot across the street from this project. The surface lot is owned by the same developer and that site will become a Phase II project.

That second rendering was cancelled. The first rendering is the current one.

It won't end up being out of scale. The ~600' and ~650' towers in this rendering have broken ground. The 800'+ Ritz-Carlton tower is scheduled to break ground late this year. There is also a 775' Conrad Hilton tower out of view at stage left scheduled to break ground later this year.

One more off topic tower... The same developer/GC (Ryan Cos.) that said they are starting the 774' BBVA bank tower in January also said they are still planning on starting their Tower 5C project in January. This is Tower 5C: Austin Design Commission Presentation

It's just like the other 65-story 800 footer - office on the bottom and apartments on top. We're only going after Dallas right now. Houston is safe.