Goodbye 2018 Photo

 

Hours before the New Year, I shot this from the Headliners Club at Sixth and Lavaca in the Chase Building. That's our building (The 360) in the middle with the spire and The Independent on the right. (It's the tallest building in Austin at the moment. It is a luxury condo building and is nearing completion now.)

The Neighborhood is Changing

The skyline behind these flowers (blooming on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge) is really changing and has been for the past months and years. The topped but as yet unfinished Independent looms behind the Seaholm Residences in the center. To the right of center is our building (now ten years occupied with the needle on top. Continuing to the right is the Third+Shoal Building across the street from us which is still under construction and next to it is the Proper Hotel and Condos still being built.

I can see our house from here!

I was walking home from a meeting the other day and saw this perspective of our condo tower (in the middle with a spike on top). At times, it is still hard to believe that we live downtown.

What a view!

I took this pano photo when we went to a party in a friend's condo the other night. That's our home in the center of the shot.

Work in Progress

We don't usually walk on the north side of Caesar Chavez across the creek. (Until recently it was impassable because of construction.) Thought I should snap a picture while our building was still in the picture. The cranes are for two more buildings (the Proper and Third+Shoal) rising between the (as yet unopened) Second Street bridge and our place on the right. You can see the Independent going up on the left.

Tracking Independent Progress

The Independent Condominiums rise on the west bank of Shoal Creek. That's our building (the 360) in the background on the other side of the creek.This will be the tallest building in Austin when completed.

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago today we started this blog with a picture of the Ballet Austin building which was under construction. That picture, looking east, showed the AMLI on Second building still under construction. Our building was just rising up looking the other direction. Looking west today from that spot, ten years later, you can see our building on the right, occupied now for about nine years. You can see a building under construction just to the left of that. This is the Independent Condominiums which will rise across the creek to be the tallest building in Austin. To the left of that, you can see the completed Seaholm Condominiums. The cranes across Nueces from the Ballet are for an office building called Third+Shoal. It's amazing what a difference ten years makes.

House Finch at Sunrise

Shot from my easy chair through a dirty window. These guys usually get stirred up and show up when the weather is in flux. Except for a wind shift this day not much was happening with the weather.

Sweet dog waiting for an elevator

This cute little dog and his master were waiting with us in the lobby the other day.

Storm's Abrewing

This panorama was taken from our balcony at the 360 when a storm was coming.

We Are All Red

Our building (the 360 Condominium Tower) can change the lights in the glass triangles at the south ends of our hallways to express our mood. Here we are all red. Either for Valentine's Day or maybe showing solidarity with heart disease causes or HIV/AIDs.

Views are Fleeting

There was a Teju Cole essay on photography in the NY Times magazine a couple of weeks ago. I saved this quote because it really seemed to define photography for me:

"Photography is inescapably a memorial art. It selects, out of the flow of time, a moment to be preserved, with the moments before and after falling away like sheer cliffs."

Given this definition, just about any photo from any contributor to the City Daily Photo blogs would do for this month's theme day: ephemeral.

This is a photo taken from my chair in our apartment. A very heavy rain is almost blocking out the buildings that usually populate this view. But is there a non-ephermeral view? Across time buildings are built, the light changes and, yes, the rain falls. The point in time matters, the point of view matters. In reviewing old pictures in this blog of our building and views from here, I came across this one showing the view when we were sleeping on a hide-a-bed couch in the living room because our bedroom wasn't furnished yet. That moment was ephemeral, too. But I couldn't have said it better than Teju Cole.

Click here to see how others have interpreted the theme.

The hood is looking good!

A quick shot with my iPhone gave me this sweet photo of our home. It's the white building in the center.

That takes guts.

I got this shot of the window cleaners for our condo tower on a recent afternoon while I was working out in the gym. The iPhone is a great invention.

Condo Christmas

Our staff makes the lights match the season. They've got a red white and blue theme going on right now which is fine for the holidays.

Home sweet home

Here's a shot of our home that shows the construction offices for the Seaholm set up on our west side.

Hanging on the Highway

This Blue Lapis Light Dancer performs on a column supporting IH35. This was part of the boardwalk grand opening celebration. You can see the Monarch, 360, AMLI on Second, the W and the Ashton in the background.

Lady Bird Lake Has a New Boardwalk

My friend Jackie shot this one when we walked over to the east to the ribbon cutting on June 7th. Our home, the 360, is on the far right. As you can see this new path around the lake extends for a long distance over the water.

Juggling

This juggler was doing his thing on the Long Center porch during Yehudi Goes to Texas, a free event during the Menuhin Violin competition. That's our home in the background, of course.

Room with a View

We were dining in a private room at the Headliners Club (the Green Room) and I just sort of shot this sunset/reflection picture 'from the hip' during the cocktail portion of the evening with my tiny Nikon S01. The lamp, the reflection of the bookcases (which hold books written by members of the club), our building (just above the lamp), the line of traffic on Sixth Street...it really spoke to me about our life in downtown Austin. No retouching done.