Austin recently witnessed the groundbreaking of Block 21, a $260 million mixed-use development in downtown being built to platinum certification under the USGBC’s LEED program.  Block 21 includes a 250-room W Hotel® and 200 residential condominiums, a new television studio for the world- renowned Austin City Limits, a 2,200 seat live music venue, the Austin Children’s Museum Dell Discovery Center, retail space, restaurants, and an open-air public plaza.  The project is expected to be one of the first mixed-use developments in the world built to this level of LEED standards. 

The 35-story building will include the five-star W Hotel on the lower levels and 200 units of residential condos on the upper levels.  The 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom condos will range in size from 643 to 3,183 sf, with top-of-the-line, luxury finishouts.  The development will also include a state-of-the-art spa, a signature restaurant, and 47,000 sf of retail space. 

Block 21 has been designed by Andersson Wise Architects; interiors consultant Holden & Dupuy; public space and interiors designer Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen; venue designer Rios Clementi Hale Studios; project coordinator and production planner BOKA Powell; and landscape architecture firm Gardens.  Via SkyscraperPage.

(S2) = Skyscraper Sunday, a weekly article on green skyscrapers.