The Shore Breaks Ground

Condos, anyone?

High Street Residential, a division of the Trammell Crow Company, has broken ground at Red River and Davis (yes, above the secret tunnel) on a 22 story condo building (17 floors of condos over five floors of parking). The building will be linked to a 26 story Kimpton hotel/condo being built next door. WDG Architecture, which also did the Milago, is the architect, while Duncan and Miller Design is doing the interiors.

Five floors of parking kind of hurts, but Austin is a car based city and Austinites don't buy homes if they don't come with a parking spot. The real fork-in-the eye is that neither The Shore nor the adjacent hotel appear to include ground floor retail! Did Jane die in vain? Engage the street! One source mentions that three live/work townhomes will front the street, but there is no mention of that in any of the other articles about the project or on the website. Townhomes are better than the exterior of a parking garage fronting the street, although far short of a deli, a dry cleaner and a vinyl robot store.

The ABJ article does mention that the developer dropped $10,000 on the Austin Parks Foundation to improve access to the hike and bike trail, which is a good sign on the street-engagement tip, but doesn't really "make The Shore an Austin 'green building'." There were some early indications that The Shore would be certified by the Austin Green Building Program, which is awesome, even if less awesome than a LEED certification. No word on whether this is still the case, but there is an Austin Green Building Program logo on The Shore's website.

*Image from The Shore*