DRONE: Meta tower climbing to final form that will be over 1 million square feet

When Facebook first came to Austin in 2010, it had just over a handful of employees based here.

Now, after a surge in the Austin employee headcount, the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and a name change by its parent company to Meta, preparations are being made for its most striking local office yet.

A drone video taken by Austonia shows the building Meta will occupy, Sixth and Guadalupe, is well into the process of rising up to its full form as a contender for the tallest building in Austin if a 74-story project at 98 Red River St. doesn’t beat them out. Once it’s completed in 2023, it’ll have 589,112 square feet of office space and nearly 350 units of residential space.

(Gensler)

Ed Muth, Gensler principal-in-charge of the project, says it’s one of those buildings that only comes along every so often.

“However, it seems like in Austin, we have more and more of them that continue to happen,” Muth said. “But this one is very special for us. It’s a combination of three or four building types together with the parking garage, the office and the residential piece all with a ground-level that has retail in it and everything else that makes the building function.”

All these pieces coming together are captured in real-time with a camera documenting the building’s ascent.

A fan cam for the construction process is fitting for a tower poised to be 66 floors. But Sixth and Guadalupe is more than just its height.

“At the end, you get great views out of the residences and the office space is just incredible because of the floor plate size and just the convenience in downtown,” Muth said. “I don’t know that there’s anything like it or there will be like it for a while in the marketplace. This is gonna set the standard.”