Every time we come across a new downtown Austin condo, apartment, or office tower project in the planning stages, we like to cobble together a little 3D massing of it in Google Earth to help everyone visualize what it’ll look like in context with the rest of the city — for example, check out our rendering of the potential future of the Rainey Street District’s skyline!

We thought it might be fun to put the five tallest towers planned at the moment in downtown Austin together in one picture, to give you a better idea of what our central skyline will look like in the near future if these announced projects all end up getting built. Only problem is, Google Earth hasn’t updated the 3D model for the Independent yet, since the building only topped out a while back, so we had to stick it in there manually — meaning there are six massings in these photos, which we’ve labeled from two angles to help you out:

Massings of the five tallest building projects planned downtown, plus the Independent, which is already there — don’t get it twisted. Click for a larger view. Image: Google Earth / James Rambin

Looking east-ish at the upcoming skyline, with handy labels included. Click for a larger view. Image: Google Earth / James Rambin

Putting this together was pretty simple, but the effect is striking. Even though these massings don’t reflect the actual shapes of the planned buildings for the most part — you didn’t really think the future of downtown was a bunch of green boxes, did you? — their heights are exact based on the data we have for each tower, meaning they give a fairly accurate idea of the new tallness headed for the downtown of tomorrow:

Another future skyline mock-up sans labels. Image: Google Earth / James Rambin

Here’s some data on the towers included in these images, with links to stories about each one — yeah, we’re biased, but they’re highly recommended reading:

6 x Guadalupe

848 ft / 65 floors

Image: Gensler Austin

The Republic

708 ft / 46 floors



Image: Lincoln Property Company / Phoenix Property Company / Duda/Paine Architects / HKS Architects

The Independent

690 ft / 58 floors



Image: DCI Engineers

Block 185

589 ft / 35 floors

Image: Trammell Crow Company / CBRE

Block 71

542 ft / 36 floors

Image: Trammell Crow Company / Principal / Page

5th & Lavaca

509 ft / 45 floors



Image: SCB / The Hanover Company