Downtown's New Buildings

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“As originally proposed, [601 Forest] was too big for that part of town,” says Luckenbach. “The original mass was way too immense,” agrees Quinn. “Tower Plaza is a skyscraper at twenty-seven stories. But South University and Forest is a more residential part of downtown, and the original design was too large. And I’d have to say University Towers was a negative influence in that regard.”

“Like Corner Houser Lofts, its big virtue is that it brings students closer to campus,” notes Beckley, “and fourteen stories is appropriate for the neighborhood—although twenty wouldn’t have been bad. It depends on the quality of the building. University Towers, for example, is now part of the landscape, but it is an ugly building.”

Rueter votes with the consensus: “University Towers is a bad building, though the height doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the building itself. As for the new building, it’s hard to know what it’ll be like until it’s built. But having another big building there could be a good thing if it mitigates University Towers.”

Judging the condos

Before the current rush to build student rentals, condos drove the housing boom. Downtown has added three major owner-occupied projects in the past five years.