Uptown's hottest new office tower with ground-floor retail officially opened last week (though it delivered in Q3). With 530k SF in the most talked-about office submarket in Dallas, we had to get a closer look at Crescent Real Estate's McKinney & Olive.

About 25% of the land for McKinney & Olive was transformed into a public green space. Crescent's dedication to turn such a large space into a non-revenue generating park shows its commitment to positively transforming the Uptown neighborhood, Pelli Clarke Pelli principal Gregg Jones says.

The 21-story tower has a seven-story structured parking garage. Gregg, Crescent CEO John Goff and Crescent managing director John Zogg hand-selected the stones for the floor and walls from Italy. The team wanted the walls and floor to be a mirror inverse.

Anchor tenant Gardere downsized about 40% to occupy 115k SF in McKinney & Olive from its former home at Thanksgiving Tower. Zogg tells us each office tenant in McKinney & Olive (including newly signed CrossFirst Bank) dropped square footage by at least 10%. The efficiency of the building allowed for downsizing and despite the highest rents in Uptown (north of $50/SF), Goff tells us Crescent is getting no push back on rents.

Gensler designed the law firm's interior complete with many multi-functional spaces (pictured) that can be converted from meeting rooms of varying sizes to event space. Gardere was able to cut down on a lot of space by removing a massive law library (something many other law offices are experimenting with), partner Kevin Kelley tells us.

The 93% leased building has office space available on the second and third floors. Crescent took street-level energy very seriously when planning began on the tower five years ago (before even Klyde Warren Park delivered), Crescent managing director Joseph Pitchford says.

Zogg tells us while 45% of the ground-floor retail has yet to be leased, about 40% of that is spoken for in forthcoming announcements. Crescent will announce a spin studio, a spa and two more restaurants in the remaining space (pictured) adjacent to Starbucks.

An amenities floor for all tenants includes a gym designed by Canyon Ranch (the perfect place to stay in shape after indulging at ground-floor restaurants such as Del Frisco's and Doc B's), meeting space, reception and a killer patio.

The Office of James Burnett (the same architect behind Klyde Warren Park) designed the fifth-floor tenant-only balcony with stellar views of the Crescent to the north and Reunion Tower to the south.