A Tall Place to Call Home

Trivia question: In what US city will you find the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi River? (And this can include mixed-use buildings that are mostly residential.)

Is it in Los Angeles, our nation’s second largest city, and home of the tallest building of any kind west of the Mississippi?

Is it in San Francisco, courtesy of the fairly new One Rincon Hill South Tower that juts 641 feet above the Bay Bridge approach?

Is it in Seattle, located on the isthmus that squeezes available land for new homes?

Is it in Portland, where regional land use policies encourage dense infill development, and naysayers fret about all of us living in condo towers?

Is it in mile-high Denver?

In Dallas or Houston, where Texans like it big?

Minneapolis?

Vegas?

Answer: None of the above.

The Austonian. Photo: Carlton Wade

The tallest residential building west of the Mississippi is The Austonian in Austin, Texas. Completed in 2010, it stands 683 feet tall with 56 floors, and is also the tallest building in Austin. In fact, I’m fairly certain it is the third tallest residential building in all of the US, surpassed only by creations of The Donald: Trump World Tower in New York (861’), and Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago (1,170’). 

I find this remarkable, hence this post. You expect tall residential buildings in first-tier cities like New York and Chicago, or in new infill districts of well-planned west coast cities like Portland, Seattle and San Francisco. And those cities do have them. But I did not expect to see a nearly-700-foot-tall residential tower in our nation’s 14th largest city and 35th largest metro region, a place with mostly unconstrained surrounding countryside, modest planning and zoning regulations, and (I would imagine) a desire for spacious yards similar to the rest of Texas.

Granted, I have never been to Austin and know very little about it. I’m acquainted with just one of the region’s 1.7 million residents, a fine fellow named Keith. I know that, despite containing the offices of a certain James Richard Perry, Austin is an island of liberal quirkiness amidst a sea of, well, Texas. Portland and Austin often spar over titles of coolness, weirdness, music scenester-ness and software start-up-ness. I’ve heard SxSW is rad. I’ve heard that Austin has great bungalow neighborhoods, a downtown strip of bars and music venues, and great Mexican food. I’ve heard that, despite attracting a continuous stream of young hipsters like Portland does, Austin is kicking our ass and many other city’s asses at economic growth, with a 6.4% unemployment rate (compared to 8.5% nationally), a thriving high-tech industry, and plenty of jobs in state government and at the ginormous University of Texas.

I suppose The Austonian makes sense, then, in a thriving city where people want to live close to the all the cool, weird, musical, high-tech action. I wonder if the building, which was originally conceived in the high times of 2006, is actually suffering like many other condo boom towers in our great land. If not, I wonder what type of folks are moving into The Austonian, whose website features a 1-bedroom for $692,000 and a 3-bedroom for $3.2 million.

Even if The Austonian is an outsized, gleaming phallus home to the 1%, I’m slightly jealous. Portland’s next great hope for downtown, high-rise living was in the mixed-use Park Avenue West tower. Said building became a poster child for the great recession’s assault on Portland, shedding its proposed condos, then ceasing construction altogether to become a hole in the ground. At least we have South Waterfront.

In the mean time, it’s fun to look at other cities’ forays into tall residential towers.