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Google’s New Home at Block 185 is Downtown Austin’s Next Signature Tower

James Rambin March 26, 2019 Comment

Image: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects / STG Design / Trammell Crow Company

Block 185 is an all-star tower. This 35-floor office building by national developer Trammell Crow Company, which broke ground last month in downtown Austin, is already leased in full by tech juggernaut Google,  and features a striking sail-like design courtesy of “starchitecture” outfit  Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.

For such a stacked project, it’s kind of surprising how few renderings we’ve seen of the tower so far — although I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t need to worry all that much about marketing when you’ve already landed Google as a tenant. Still, we’ve impatiently awaited a better view of the structure for ages, and thanks to a presentation by its architects to the city’s Design Commission last night, the time is now for our deepest look yet at this iconic addition to Austin’s burgeoning skyline.

There’s a lot to get through, so let’s start with the wide shots:

If you’re even a casual architecture fan, this is already enough to have you mopping your brow — César Pelli,  founder of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, is behind some of the world’s most respected skyscrapers, including the instantly-recognizable twin Petronas Towers in Malaysia. Austin’s own STG Design  and Campbell Landscape Architecture are also working on the project.

“We view this building as being a gateway to downtown.” — Bill Butler, Principal, Pelli Clarke Pelli

Austin’s received more than its fair share of compelling towers in the last few years — mostly office buildings, although the Independent condos  certainly raised the bar for residential projects — but this might be the single most impressive skyscraper design we’ve seen in the city since the debut of the Frost Bank Tower.  

Though the pyramidal shape of the 589-foot building just looks cool to the casual observer, it’s also an elegant solution to a pair of challenging development constraints on the property — the look is mandated, at least to some extent, by the two angled setback requirements imposed on the property due to its proximity to Shoal Creek to the west and Lady Bird Lake to the south across Cesar Chavez Street.

Architectural elevations of the Block 185 tower from the west (left) and south (right), with the respective setbacks imposed by the building’s proximity to Lady Bird Lake and Shoal Creek shown with red dotted lines. Image: Civilitude Engineers

On the tower’s western elevation, this setback is expressed by a curved, sail-shaped glass wall, while the southern elevation accommodates the requirement with a series of terraces that recede as the building rises — the paths of both setbacks and the outline of the structure carefully following them are visible in the illustration above, with additional detail on display in the image below:

The architects illustrated the location’s unique zoning limitations during their presentation to the commission with an image highlighting the envelope, seen here in red, that a building on this site can occupy:

Here are some of the closer-up views shown off at yesterday’s meeting, which also include a better look at the building’s landscape design and ground-floor interaction with surrounding streets, plus its engagement with the adjacent Shoal Creek:

Remember, this tower’s site is bound by  Cesar Chavez Street to the south, Nueces Street to the east, Second Street to the north, and Shoal Creek to the west. The plot represents the final piece of  redevelopment  for Austin’s former Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant, and perhaps the trickiest of the bunch to build on, due to a variety of constraints — there’s probably a reason Block 185 is the last major project to break ground in this new district.

Along with accommodating Shoal Creek itself, its location means the new building must play nice with the plaza and trail space at the Central Library site on the opposite bank, along with the district’s eye-catching Butterfly Bridge. Also found nearby are the Austin Proper and Third + Shoal developments, with the Independent only a bit further away. It’s easy to forget what this area looked like only a decade ago!

To improve the building’s ground-floor engagement with Shoal Creek, the northwest corner includes a retail space with an outdoor plaza overlooking the creekbed — likely to be occupied by a restaurant. This side also enables connectivity between Cesar Chavez and Second Streets for cyclists and pedestrians:

The tower’s northeast corner will also include ground-floor retail space facing the corner of Second and Nueces Streets — pretty much inevitably another restaurant, since it would be a real bummer to waste that patio:

Greenwater Block 185 is the final phase of the Greenwater Redevelopment project and will house a 35 story office building (including 10 levels of above grade parking), 6 levels of below ground parking, and ground floor restaurant/retail. We broke ground on the project in February 2019 to start the diaphragm wall which will take 3 months to complete before excavation can start on the site. — Block 185 Design Commission Presentation Documents, March 25

The building includes 793,883 total rentable square feet of office space, all of which is apparently going to be occupied by Google. Here’s how the floors are laid out, along with some information about its above and below-grade parking:

The developers were not at last night’s meeting to seek a density bonus recommendation from the Design Commission — this project’s under the jurisdiction of the master development agreement established between Trammell Crow and the city for the redevelopment of the former water treatment plant, meaning the Downtown Density Bonus Program’s gatekeeper requirements don’t apply here. Instead, their presentation was simply a “courtesy briefing” that allowed commissioners to provide comments on the project.

Though the reception was definitely positive, there were a few critiques, mostly related to the tower’s ground-level frontages along Shoal Creek and Cesar Chavez Street. Since the building doesn’t really have a “back of house” — it faces active streets on three sides and a protected creek on the fourth, with nary an alley in sight — there’s nowhere ideal to place its transformer vaults, which in the current configuration face Cesar Chavez Street and give the structure’s ground level on its southern-facing side an appearance that commissioners didn’t find particularly friendly or well-suited for the pedestrian environment.

The commission raised the “not unheard-of” possibility that Austin Energy might allow the developer to bury these vaults underground, a design previously permitted for the JW Marriott tower. This same question came up during the density bonus application for Block 71, so maybe it’s time to figure it out for good?

You can see the effect of the transformer vaults in the image above, which looks at the southeast corner of the building from Cesar Chavez and Nueces Streets — there’s an art installation space facing Cesar Chavez Street to offset the monolithic effect of the vaults, but it would be nice if the architects didn’t have to design around them at all.

The other concern involved the ground-level design of the tower facing Shoal Creek, which commissioners found a little cramped-looking for pedestrian and bicycle traffic and not landscaped densely enough to either provide shade or match the lush appearance of the Central Library’s outdoor space just across the creek. The site’s preserved heritage live oak tree, which was moved by the city to the bank of the creek from the edge of Cesar Chavez Street back in 2017, does look a little lonely — you can see it standing tall in the center of the image below:

It’s unclear whether these comments will result in alterations to the project’s design, but they certainly don’t seem like insurmountable problems — we’ll be excited to follow the progress of this tower either way. Per the presentation, Block 185 is currently scheduled to set sail by early May 2022.

Editor's Suggested Posts

Finally, We've Got a Better View of the Block 185 Office Tower

Central Austin Development Roundup: Lots of Holes in the Ground

What We Talk About When We Talk About 'Signature Towers' in Austin

About James Rambin

James is an Austin native and fifth-generation Texan, but tries not to brag about it. Email him anything at [email protected] .

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Austin's next iconic high-rise sets sail downtown with Google on board

Topped by what’s labeled a “pyramidal crown,” the 33-story Frost Bank Tower debuted in 2004 at East Fourth Street and Congress Avenue. It soon earned the nickname of the “Owl Building,” thanks to the owl-eye circles — actually Frost Bank logos — near the top of the high-rise.

Not far from the Frost Bank Tower is The Independent, a soon-to-open, 57-story condo tower. The building, at West Fifth Street and West Avenue, bears a strong resemblance to a stack of blocks, thus prompting people to dub it the “Jenga Building.”

Now, another one-of-a-kind structure is set to grace Austin’s downtown skyline. The 35-story office tower has neither a name nor a nickname yet, although it aptly could be christened the “Sailboat Building,” given the sail-like shape of its east and west sides.

The tower’s architects envision it being “a new icon for Austin.”

Dallas-based developer Trammell Crow Co. broke ground on the project in February. Construction is scheduled to be finished in May 2022. Google already has gobbled up all of the office space in the high-rise, which will feature nearly 794,000 rentable square feet.

At a recent meeting of the Austin Design Commission, project architects provided a preview of the Google tower. Bill Butler, principal of New Haven, Connecticut-based Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, said that based on its location — bordered by West Second Street to the north, West Caesar Chavez Street to the south, Nueces Street to the east, and Shoal Creek to the west — the building will serve as a “gateway to downtown.” It’ll sit about 200 feet north of Lady Bird Lake at 601 W. Second St. (next to Austin’s new Central Library), thus offering prime waterfront views.

The gleaming glass-and-steel office tower will add to the character of Austin, “but most importantly [it] will put forth the values of the city and really extend a kind of sense of how Austin likes to occupy the workplace [and] also how it respects the open public-space environment,” according to Butler.

Butler added that the tower “complements” the current skyline “but also stands out as being unique.”

On the Caesar Chavez side, the building will gradually taper from wider at the bottom to narrower at the top, creating the appearance of a sail from the Nueces Street and Shoal Creek ends — a nod to the neighboring lake and creek. Butler said he thinks this will be the first Austin office building to feature outdoor terraces at so many levels.

Austin-based STG Design Inc. is collaborating with Pelli Clarke Pelli on the design of the Austin high-rise. Aside from the Google tower, Pelli Clarke Pelli is leading the design of the new Frost Bank Tower in downtown San Antonio.

The new tower will feature nearly 794,000 rentable square feet.

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Living on an expansive estate teeming with untouched nature and vegetation may seem like a priceless dream, but a lavish property in West Austin has a cost in mind: $15.2 million.

Photo courtesy of Peyton Skinner

The Sanctuary on Barton Creek sits on 24 acres of untouched Hill Country land.

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The new Wolf appliances in the state-of-the-art chef's kitchen is a primary example of the sophisticated upgrades that have been completed on the residence. The primary bathroom has also been completely remodeled, where the next owners can be enamored with the privacy of the Hill Country while enjoying luxurious baths in the standalone soaking tub.

Another key feature of this home is its abundance of fireplaces, which can be found in bedrooms, living areas, balconies, and outdoors.

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All of the residences open up to the backyard pool area where guests can relax under the covered veranda, the patio, or take a dip in the resort-style custom designed pools. There's plenty of outdoor activities to enjoy if exploring the property's untouched 24 acres is a more appealing alternative to sitting by the pool.

"Enjoy honey made from the hives on the property which provide not only an agricultural exemption, but also promote a healthy environment for everyone," the listing says.

Guests are also welcome to go fishing or paddle boarding in Barton Creek, where the estate has more than 200 feet of grassy shoreline access to the water.

The property is zoned for Lake Travis Independent School District, and is situated just minutes away from the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave.

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