Hating on the Highrises (San Antonio, Austin: house, utilities, living in)

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by llkltk

I guess most of you would prefer to have the old Austin and dirty old 6th street.

Um, yes! How did you guess?

ps, 6th street is still dirty!

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by pbnj07

I wonder if all this highrise hatred existed in NYC in the early 20th century. It's really amazing how much people fear change.

What I find interesting is how this particular "fear change" canard is flung when people don't like the KIND of change that's happening - it's much easier to pretend that it's a fear of change itself rather than perhaps that the kind of change is the problem. There is a difference, you know.

Folks in Austin who've been here for a while aren't particularly interested in becoming a replica of other cities that people who moved here from want to turn this city into. (There's an easier solution - if you like it so much better than Austin, go back. This applies to any city from any city, by the way, or to the country from the city or vice versa.) That's all. Change is one thing - becoming an indistinguishable part of a homogenized culture is something else entirely and not acceptable.

[centralaustinite]

Oh come on now!

You have not been condescended to until you are a Texas native living or attending school in the old-establishment East! Many people have written about this including both Molly Ivins and George Bush! (I think that it was much worse in the 1960s and 1970s than it is now, if that helps).

I find Texans to be friendly generous people and after 20 years here I am proud to say that I am from Texas. I think that most of the east and west-coast bashing that you see here (pretty mild in my time at city-data) comes from folks who have been bashed by coastal folks! Particularly during the last 8 years, it has not always been easy to be from Texas. But it wasn't much easier during the oil boom and JR Ewing years, or during the time after JFK was shot and killed in Dallas. Texas-hating has often been a 49-state sport!

A little grousing about condos or Californians or Yankees who don't like our bagels or pizza or art museum or taste in music . . . that's just another name for the process of communitas or defining our sense of belonging together!

[verybadgnome]

Reading all the comments I can really only come up with two reasons why this is not a good thing, and both of them are pretty trivial at this point.

Yes, some of the architecture is questionable and will not date well even if it does look good now. But really most of the homes in the Austin (especially from the 70s onward) area are pretty lame in this regard themselves as they seem designed to fit as much home onto as small a plot possible, aesthetics be damned. Front loaders can be considered "practical" but I cannot see them as attractive unless you main goal is to stuff as much junk into your garage as possible. Diversity within developments is also sorely lacking.

Second point is the blocking of Austin landmarks such as the capitol. While there is merit to this we also have to look at the downsides of preserving these historical/aesthetics qualities. Other cities like Washington D.C. have a strict height policy in regards to buildings at this has resulted in less residential diversity and more sprawl, which in turns wastes natural resources as well as people's time in the form of longer commutes (D.C.'s Fear of Heights)

I really think a lot of the naysayers are coming from the POV of traditional Texas culture which is more rural in mindset. That is living in close proximity to one another is not looked at as desirable, in fact it seems downright claustrophobic to many. The ideal of having your own plot of land (ideally a ranch) is hard to fit into the idea of shared, vertical spaces. The mere idea of what a city is in Texas, the post-WWII suburban ideal which is even more extreme in the Sunbelt States, is not the same as it is in traditional East coast cities so any deviation towards the latter type of development is looked at skeptically or even as an intrustion.

Still I am optimistic b/c thankfully we (1) presently have leadership, e.g. Wynn among others, who promote this type of development and (2) because we have a segment of the population who will buy into this idea with their own hard-earned dollars and then in turn try to make viable communities where once there were only street level parking lots and (3) are thinking about long term growth patterns and what this city will look like in the decades to come and the ramifications of such decisions.

[homeinatx]

In my opinion, downtown Austin is only getting better. Build 'em high and pack 'em in. A lot of what was there before was abandoned lots and asphalt parking. The character of Austin is much more threatened by miles of homogenous suburban sprawl - in most of Round Rock (the historic downtown is lovely) you could be in the exurbs of Fresno or Pittsburgh - how to tell?- than by a few semi-glossy high-rises - most of which have restaurant or retail first floors, so unlike downtown Houston or Dallas, there is active pedestrian life day and night. I agree the Austonian is a stupid name, but who cares, it is going to be a great building. I think the Frost Bank Tower is an architectural blight - an oversized nostril hair trimmer, but I am still glad it is there. So far downtown development is only adding to what makes Austin Austin - more local restaurants and bars, more weird and interesting people. You can walk down west 2nd or 3rd street on a Monday night and find people sitting and drinking and chatting at sidewalk cafes before and after shows at La Zona Rosa or the Austin Music Hall or the Austin Ballet, whereas 2 years ago, on those same streets, all there was was pigeon poop and maybe a pedicap waiting to take you to your car. Walk around it. Get to know it. Sure the development needs to be handled carefully in terms of capitol view corridors and waterfront easements, but a revitalizing downtown represents many of the best things about living here. I hate a lot of the development that is happening in Austin particularly the ecologically irresponsible building over the Edwards Aquifer, but what is happening downtown is mostly a delightfully sign of Austin quite literally growing UP.

[twange]

Question: Why is it assumed that the changes happening in Austin right now are bad? They may or may not be true, but most of the comments on this board are simply personal preference by a few and anecdotal evidence by many. It's totally wearisome.

And my God, just because someone hasn't lived here for a long time and might like some of the new downtown buildings, doesn't mean they're trying to replicate another city. And what makes Austin's parking lots and ugly concrete squalor so sacrosanct? Ironically, I think the elements of Austin that seem common to dozens of other cities are the many older, drab 1960s government buildings and parking garages - not the newer buildings. I've been to every major city in the U.S. and I don't see where Austin is imitating any of them. Why are some people so afraid of buildings in DOWNTOWN? Austin is still really cool, what's all the damn fuss?

Actually, I think the next phase should concentrate on some more accessible residences - i.e. moderately priced, lower-rise apartments as in-fill and bike and pedestrian projects. Get people downtown for other reasons than getting hammered and laid.

As for the Austonian, it does sound ignorant but maybe look at it this way: Austinite refers to PEOPLE, Austonian refers to a Building. My personal preference is the Monarch apartments(the one with the changing colored roof). Not another steel and glass phallus, but a moderately-sized building with a very nice curve.

[AustinExPat]

I like going for walks at sunset on the south side of Lady Bird Lake west of Lamar. The view to the northeast around dusk is fantastic. It's like the view in the last three photos in this post (nice pix, LoneStarMike):

SkyscraperPage Forum - View Single Post - AUSTIN Update Thread

It's not the view I saw growing up, but I'll be damned if it doesn't take my breath away. And it's not anything like a view of Boston or New York or Chicago or any place in California. That's an Austin view. It doesn't remind me of any place else.

[llkltk]

Time changes cities, that's a fact. I enjoy you die hard Austinites that beg and plead for the old country. This is life, this is what happens. This town is small to me and to a lot of people despite the growth.

Oh, by the way, here's a tidbit for you to think about, an article just came out that said Austin's population will rise to 2.7 million by 2025. Here they come!

[twange]

Originally Posted by AustinExPat

I like going for walks at sunset on the south side of Lady Bird Lake west of Lamar. The view to the northeast around dusk is fantastic. It's like the view in the last three photos in this post (nice pix, LoneStarMike):

SkyscraperPage Forum - View Single Post - AUSTIN Update Thread

It's not the view I saw growing up, but I'll be damned if it doesn't take my breath away. And it's not anything like a view of Boston or New York or Chicago or any place in California. That's an Austin view. It doesn't remind me of any place else.

That's one of my favorite views of Austin! I've been through that entire thread, btw - some great pics there. I believe those were taken from the gazebo along the Town Lake trail?

[brattpowered]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

A name with a solid Texas ring would have been something like Maverick Condos, (Where do you live? Oh, I live in the Maverick.") Or maybe Congress Heights, San Jacinto Towers, Violet Crown Residences, give me something, anything, that doesn't sound awkward to say and reminds me of somewhere else!

Casa del Queso