Sacto high rise update

Every once in a while, I take my two kids on a little field trip to downtown Sacramento to check progress on two high rises going up on Capitol Mall, which is a divided street that runs between the State Capitol building and the Sacramento River. I wrote a post last year about all the construction either in progress or planned for downtown Sacramento. One of the buildings that was but a steel skeleton at the time was the U.S. Bank Tower. The envisioned rendition looked like this:

This building's exterior has now been completed, the sky crane has been taken down, and now the completion of the interior and outside landscaping are currently underway. Here is the actual building as seen through my lens:

Further down the street, 500 Capitol Mall is in the skeleton stage. When it is completed, it will look like this:
Right now, the building is looking rather unfinished, but the skeleton seems to be more and more visible on the city skyline with each passing day:

I took this photo on the last day of March. That skeleton is undoubtedly several stories higher by now. These buildings are great, but all is not well downtown. The most impressive projects of all that I talked about in last May's post have fallen through for various reasons and will most likely never be built. These building include the Capital Towers:

The Epic:

And the Aura:

A lot of the building cancellations have to do with the real estate downturn, but you could just as easily blame our dysfunctional city government. In the meantime, I will definitely keep an eye on the sky.

Good Day to You, Sir