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Austin | Fairmont Hotel | 595' | 36-Stories | Complete 2018


The ATX

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The final uninstalled spire section can be seen staged just to the left of the installed spire in this Syndic photo.  The spire makes up 139' of the official 595' height of the building and looks ridiculous from most angles.  But so far it has been up pretty well at night, and I've concluded that it is a worthy part of the tower. 

1EI372nh.jpg 

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  • 4 weeks later...

A substantial amount of scaffolding has been constructed around the spire this week.  The final couple sections of the spire should be installed relatively soon.  This place opens for business next month.  One question remaining is whether or not the spire will have any lighting other than the required red airplane bulb on top.

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Photo by corvairkeith

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  • 3 weeks later...

The last piece of the spire with the flashing red aviation light has been installed.  That officially makes this the second tallest building in Austin at 595' surpassing the 581' 360 condo tower.  But they won't be holding those spots on the tallest list for long.  These are also the only two towers in Austin with spires.

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  • 5 weeks later...

It looks like this one will be updated to "Complete" status on December 1st.  The Fairmont is taking reservations beginning December 1st for rates starting at "only" $349 with the "Opening Celebration Package".  The construction delays were costly because they will miss out on the lucrative two weekends of ACL Fest which are followed by Formula One race weekend in October.

This tower has an awkwardly tall spire, but they have been experimenting with some nice LED lighting on the mechanical screen the past few weeks.  It may end up looking pretty flashy at night.  I just hope it's not Las Vegas flashy.

 

 

 

 

 

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Here's a view looking down at the rambling skybridge that will connect the Fairmont to the convention center.  I don't know the original source of this photo.

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The mechanical screen and spire will be capable of some pretty awesome light shows.  This news release from Gensler talks about the lighting and spire.  From the release:  

Quote

The new crown can be lit any color, or an array of colors, and will begin being programmed with various visual displays this week. As dusk falls, the spire will often be illuminated with calm white lighting, which depending on the occasion, can be scaled from subtle hues to dynamic applications of more than 15 million colors, including “chasing” light displays, where the lights sequentially flash on and off.

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Here's a recent photo of the ugly side taken from the intersection of Cesar Chavez and Red River that shows the lighting.   The lighting on the mechanical screen and spire can be changed to almost anything imaginable.  Since this photo was taken, signage for the Fairmont Hotel was added to the top.

  This project is also suffering from significant construction delays.  It had an August opening at one point, and they are now refunding December bookings.  The new opening is scheduled for sometime in the first quarter of 2018.   

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Photo by deerhoof

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  • 2 weeks later...

This project is more than six months behind schedule due to construction delays and mishaps, and the Fairmont recently refunded December reservations.  They are now trying to open before SXSW starts in March.  They are charging ~$1,000 per night during SXSW.  A $1,000 per night times more than 1,000 rooms is a lot of cash.  Every hotel room in Austin sells out during SXSW, so I can see why they are trying to open for it.  They already missed the revenue they would have gotten from the two ACL fest weekends as well as the Formula 1 race weekend.  

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  • 1 month later...

The tentative, but not official grand opening is February 15th based on their reservations system.   They are really trying to open before SXSW because the hotel appears to be sold out for SXSW, and the festival is renting the meeting space in the hotel.   This ABJ article has some details.  It's behind a paywall, so some well time "Esc" key mashing is in order.

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I changed the status of this one to complete in the thread  title  because the grand opening is Monday.  Next week is also the start of SXSW, so after 8 months of delays, they managed to open just in time for SXSW.    It will now be Austin's biggest hotel with 1,048 rooms surpassing the 1,012 rooms at the JW.  It also has 140,000 sq. ft. of  convention space which is about half of what the Austin convention center alone has. Here's a KXAN news story about it from Friday night: 

KXAN.  

The Fairmont is connected to the convention center by this sky bridge.  I hope they plant some trees around it.

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KXAN

 

 

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