Austin Skyscraper Forum

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks to Tom in Chicago from SkyscraperPage.com for taking these pictures. He's the first forumer to get to see it.

A work in progress...

I've always been into Legos. I've been building things with them since I was probably 6 years old. Now days though I build all kinds of models. About 8 years ago my grandma suggested that I build some models of skyscrapers with my Legos since I'm into both of them.

Well anyway, long story short I started off with my first model and built the Sears Tower. From there I did all the manditory buildings like the World Trade Center Towers, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and so on. I also did some models of Austin buildings. Just a few of my favorites.

About 2 years ago I started work on a model of Downtown Austin. Everything is to scale, heightwise and size/width. I'm building everything inside downtown from I-35, west to Lamar Boulevard. And from Cesar Chavez Street, north to just north of the UT Campus. All the streets are there, they're to scale also with info from the city's website. Everthing is included. Skyscrapers, even 2-story convenient stores and other various buildings. Austin's famous Moonlight Towers, parking garages you name. Also along with the streets I'm doing the downtown parks and I'm adding trees, although they're Lego trees, so they don't exactly look natural, but they're green anyway.

I'm building the model on 15x15 inch base plates that Lego sells at a few stores, but mostly you have to order them through their catalog. I can't get the elevation changes in downtown, some places in downtown are quite hilly, but with the flat plates it's impossible to get the sloping, curvy hills. Otherwise the model is pretty acurrate. Colors are as close as I can get them with Lego bricks. When it's all completed the model will be about 11 feet long and over 6 feet wide. So far I have everything built from Cesar Chavez Street, north to 11th Street. And from Trinity Street, west to Lavaca Street.

To build the model I've referred to pictures I've taken of downtown. Books, magazines, postcards, posters, calendars. For the smaller buildings which are harder to see in aerial pictures I go downtown and sketch them out on paper of how they're arranged on their block and then estimate their height also. GoogleEarth has also been very useful in the building of this model.

This would be the view of the skyline if you were flying over the city going north. Austin is in the running for a new 705 footer being developed by Tom Stacy at the corner of East 5th Street & Congress Avenue. The developer recently annoucned that they're planning to raise the height from 680 feet. Here it is in the model as the large blue tower at the top right. The model here is at 680 feet. At 705 feet it would be one brick taller, about a quarter of an inch taller. This isn't the design of the tower, none of us have seen any renderings. This is just the envelope. The long, short blue structure to the right of it is the tower's 12-story parking garage which is supposed to break g round later this year. Once that's finished they'll demolish the parking structure and banking hall where the tower's slated for and breakground on Austin's new tallest! The green baseplates in the lower left are waiting to be replaced by gray onces along with the dark blue and light blue plate.


And this is downtown without the T. Stacy tower. In the lower left is another mock model I've done of another proposed tower, (approved actually). This is 101 Colorado, a 28-story tower. I've done the model so it's between 330 feet and 335 feet tall. It's in no way finished either. They haven't broken ground on the tower yet, so colors may change. The tower immediately to it's right, (east), is 320 feet tall. The big street going up the middle is Congress Avenue. The little white building at the far right, is only half of the building. The other half will be on the next baseplate over. This is the new Marriott Residence Inn/Courtyard. This is from renderings of the building, and the height comes straight from the building's bluerpints. The roof isn't finished there and it's still just a rough draft.


We didn't really plan this shot to look this good. But this is pretty much the view that you'd have from the top floor of the Hyatt just south of the river looking north into downtown. You can see up Congress Avenue there. The buildings are from left2right: 101 Colorado, 100 Congress, Bank of America Center, Frost Bank Tower, 301 Congress, and One Congress Plaza. The short white building in the lower right is the Radisson Hotel. You can see the Legoesque trees in the lower part of the picture fronting Town Lake. The small Lego bricks which border Congress Avenue are just there to divide the streets. Back when I was building the model I needed them to frame out the blocks, once the buildings are complete though and the intersections of streets are built up they can be removed. I haven't done it yet though.


Another similar view but a little farther over.


Tom said we should put the Capitol into the model, so we did. This is the view looking up Congress Avenue. In reality the Capitol would be a little further away, about another 6 inches. But the table isn't long enough. The spot where the baseplate rises up, about midway through the model is because one of the tables the model was sitting on is slightly higher than the other.


Another similar view.


The grand aerial. This would be your view looking west/northwest. Austin's new city hall is in the upper left. That was a test of my skills. I need a few more pieces to replace the wrong colors. But it's good though. You can also see West 2nd Street here, left side of the pic, next to the two highrises. The city is developing that area into a retail and residential hub for downtown. Several highrises will line it. This area went from nothing, just parking lots and empty warehouses to a booming area with much more on the way. I'm very excited about it. The parking lot behind the city hall, to it's right is slated for a new 15 to 20-story tower. The two large parking lots in the center of the model are slated for two towers also. A hotel, and a residential tower. They may end up going as high as 30 stories. I hope! To the right of the Frost Bank Tower is an empty space. There are two buildings there but I've taken them off the model for the new 705 footer. Tom and I moved the tower out of the pics to show what the skyline looks like now.


The view from the west. 2nd Street District lower right with West 2nd Street and the City Hall lower right. Behind it in that big empty space, now just a parking lot, is a 15 to 20 story tower that's proposed there, that I mentioned earlier. This site may contain a new W-Hotel which could push the tower's height up. You can also see the new, (not built yet), 101 Colorado here at the middle right with the grey vertical stripes. In the lower left is The Plaza, a loft building. This was one of the first residential buildings to come to Austin in the new "boom" since 2000.


The view from the southeast. Tom and Mopacs, the Hampton Inn that we went up in is that little yellow building in the lower right. The parking garage we went up in is below it also, the white one.


And, a nod to Tom's style...


Good contrasts.


And another project on the horizon. Tom enjoyed this one. I built my model of the Sears Tower back in 1998 but it's really skinny and it kind of distorts the shape. So, I'm upsizing. This model will be 4 times as big at it's base. This is about the top 200 feet of the Sears Tower, not counting the masts. I've started the base too but it's far from finished. My old model has around 400 pieces. So I'm guessing the new model will probably have around 1,200 pieces or so. I saw this picture today for the first time in a few days and realized this looks like the tower is poking out above some clouds or fog!


End

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[Trae713]

Very nice!!
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[KevinFromTexas]

Little update here.

Several more projects have been proposed since I last posted pictures back in February. I've worked on the model for 501 Congress, (the big blue tower). Its design will likely change, though, before it starts construction sometime next year. Altavida, seen in the images in the first post, has grown in height by 8 floors and about 80 feet. It'll be around 410 to 430 feet tall now. There's also been more details about the Block 21 Tower, so I added it into the model. 200 Congress, which is the other tall tower in the model was also added. This building and 501 Congress will be over 700 feet tall each. I also did a mock model of the Marriott Convention Center Hotel. This project is supposed to change in design, this model was based on preliminary design the developers released. It may even end up being 1 tower instead of 3, which could end up being quite tall. And we had a surprise in Austin, they've revived plans for a residential tower which had been put on hold 5 years ago. Now it will be up to 100 feet taller, though.

All the designs of the new towers may change as they develope. Most of the new towers shown here are just "mock models" showing the general size, shape, height and location. I'll add more detail and tweak the designs as these proposals become more solid. All the models are built to the current heights we know of.


The new towers in these pictures are only mock models. They're rough in design. They're only meant to show the general size and height/location of these projects.

>>>Scroll>>> Looking north up Congress. The red, rectangular tower with the blue base, to the left, is the Block 21 Tower. It'll be a 433 foot, 35-story hotel and condominum tower. W Hotels will be in the tower. The other red, retangular tower with the verticle grey lines, is Altavida, a 36-story apartment tower. It's actually under construction now. The tall, skinny, white and grey tower is 200 Congress. This will be a 700+ foot tall, 48-story condo tower. The design you see there isn't the actual design, that's actually my model of 20 Exchange Place in New York. The tall blue tower in the background behind Frost Bank Tower, is 501 Congress. This will be a 700+ foot tall tower with 47 floors. It could end up being over 750 feet tall. It will have hotel and condominium space. The yellow slab in the foreground behind the stepped red building, is the Marriott Convention Center Hotel. It's a complex of 3 buildings and will end up being Austin's largest hotel with 1,000 rooms inside a 26, 15, and 11-story building. The last tower to the far right, the white slab, that is the Four Seasons Residences. This will be a 38-story residential tower which will connect to our Four Seasons Hotel. This building had been proposed in 2000, and canceled in 2001. It's being revived and will actually be about 100 feet taller than originally proposed.


View from the west.


Catzilla - Jules, my cat.


"Aerial view".




Southwest view.




2nd Street District and the Warehouse District.


2nd Street District.


From the Southeast.






The view you'd have driving north up Congress Avenue.




Looking northwest.




From the southwest.






From the east.






View from northwest.




View from north.
















I added some more of the model in the next two shots.
















Nevermind the green around the base, that's just the baseplate I have it sitting on until I get a large grey plate for that area of downtown.








UT Tower.


Wells Fargo Tower.


Dobie Center.


Texas State Capitol. I actually need to make it 3 studs longer. Studs are those little bumps on Legos, incase you're wondering. The Capitol is 585 feet long by 295 feet.








The Capitol being dwarfed by Frost Bank & T. Stacy.




And since no one seemed to notice in one of the shots above in this thread. The Chase Bank Tower back when it had gold glass...


Chase Bank Tower as seen today. I'm not finished with the facade yet...


One American Center


[img]

Lavaca Plaza and The Plaza on Republic Square.


300 West Sixth.


Left to right: Driskill Hotel Annex, Southwest Tower, (white tower in back), Littlefield Building, (yellow building on right), Bank of America Center and base of T. Stacy Tower/501 Congress.


T. Stacy Tower, Bank of America Center with the Driskill Hotel Annex and Littlefield Building infront of them. The short white building is the original Driskill Hotel. I need to touch that up and get the rest of the pieces I need for it.


And some fun.

What if the UT Tower was in the middle of Congress? It's to scale, too, look how tiny it looks!


UT Tower, and the other yellow building with the flagpoles is Waco's Alico Building.


And, what's wrong with this image? Other than the buildings that haven't been built yet...

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[LoneStarMike]

So tell me, Kevin, were you the consultant for this project or did someone steal your idea?

[KevinFromTexas]

^ Nope, I had nothing to do with that.
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[texastrill]

Excellent!
I do some thing similar to this for my son,when he plays with his Thomas the Tank Engine sets.Nothing like your projects,though i wish i had the patience and materials.I use cardboard,and pre-fab boxes that look like skyscrapers. I also use legos,and blocks.I make simple skylines to try to make his train sets have a CBD. Honestly,its my way to help him get into architecture.He just turned three,got to start somewhere. I got a couple o' pics if you would like to see.

[KevinFromTexas]

^ Sure! Post 'em.
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