When Amli Residential completes construction on its $150 million apartment skyscraper in 2019, the dazzling 45-story tower will be the tallest high-rise built in Downtown Dallas since Chase Tower was built 30 years ago. (The Museum Tower condo development in the Arts District comes in second at 42 stories.)

The Amli development joins the iconic Reunion Tower, soaring green-bordered Bank of America Plaza, and a bold assortment of structural styles and shapes in Dallas’ skyline, which was named “Best International Skyline” three years ago in a USA Today readers’ poll.

Rather than building a run-of-the-mill, boxy glass and concrete tower, Amli is converting a Field Street parking lot it recently purchased into an eye-catching, contemporary companion to the adjacent Fountain Place skyscraper, which is known for its signature green glass and dramatic rocket-shape.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Taylor Bowen, executive vice president of Amli, said, “It was of the utmost importance [that] we do something unique and different being next to I.M. Pei’s Fountain Place. We want to have one of the premier timeless buildings downtown.” 

The Amli site was initially reserved for a matching Fountain Place office building with the lush ground-level cypress and water garden joining the twin skyscrapers. Instead — three decades later — Amli’s architect, Page Southerland Page, has designed a pointed prism structure of green glass to complement its neighbor.

“We couldn’t do a twin [because] it’s a residential tower instead of an office tower,” Lawrence Speck, senior principal of Page, told the Dallas Morning News. “We wanted the buildings to seem like siblings, not twins. We wanted a very clean, geometric object, and the two towers will dance with each other across the garden.” 

Goddard Investment Group, owner of Fountain Place, is likewise adding a retail building and parking garage and renovating the ground floor lobby of the office skyscraper. Upon completion, the mixed-use development on Downtown’s north side will be pedestrian-friendly and offer 24-7 access to the garden.

Amli’s high-rise will contain 367 rental apartments with sprawling 1,250 square-foot floorplans. Its parking garage will include a rooftop pool and lounging deck.