Icon, a new high-rise addition to Austin’s West Campus neighborhood, topped out earlier this month and is expected to be completed in time for student move-ins for the 2025-2026 school year.
Developed by New York City-based MDL Group (unrelated to the Las Vegas-based real estate firm of the same name) and built by Birmingham, Alabama-based contractor Hoar Construction, Icon is expected to offer 555 student beds across 216 units, each one ranging from one to five bedrooms in size. Amenities at the property will include a rooftop pool, a fitness center, game and lounge rooms, a media room, student work areas and four levels of below-ground parking.
At 30 stories, Icon will be one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood, according to the release. Work continues in the dense urban environment, with a tight jobsite size for ongoing construction. To ease this process, Hoar is requiring just-in-time delivery for its trade partners and implementing deck-to-deck scrimming (a floor-to-ceiling netting system) on all floors that don’t have walls yet.
“Completing a student housing project of this scale and magnitude in a tight, densely populated setting is no simple task,” said Austin Schniers, project manager at Hoar, in the release. “During the construction of Icon, we have stayed on track to complete on schedule, thanks to our reliable trade partners and supportive neighbors around the project, while also maintaining a high level of cleanliness, critical to this type of jobsite.”
The University of Texas at Austin has more than 53,000 students, according to the university’s Common Data Set. Out of all students, an estimated 83% live off campus — including an estimated 40% of the freshman class, given the scarcity of housing on campus. While more than 17,000 undergraduates applied for on-campus housing for the 2022-2023 school year, only 9,000 were accepted.
