Downtown Skyscraper For Sale

Downtown's Frost Bank Tower is up for grabs, according to Austin Business Journal. Cousins Properties, based in Atlanta, is moving onto its next phase in the company's business strategy of developing and flipping properties. Not that this will have much impact on most of us: at exactly 515' 9" tall, 33-stories high and boasting an astounding 524,000 sq-ft of prime office space, the city's highest building is already leased at roughly 81% capacity. A purchase price has yet to be announced.

A little amateur web sleuthing uncovered the following neat facts about the owl-motifed skyscraper, from Emporis Buildings and an old Cousins' press release:

A tin cross was embedded in the concrete of each floor, following tradition. The last cross was added at 9 pm on May 27, 2003 to the penthouse. The idea came from a story about an immigrant who worked on construction during the 1940s in New York City.
The silvery blue color glass facade has only been used once on one other building in the world, 3 Times Square, also known as Reuters Building in New York City.
Floorplates range in size from 16,826 to 25,856 square
The original design called for a blue glass rectangular shaped tower with a 3-story limestone podium. It was to be 352 feet tall with 27 floors.
The building's 1.7-acre tract at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Congress Avenue in downtown Austin was sold to Cousins by the Schmidt family, which came to Austin in the early 1900s and eventually founded the city's venerable Yaring's department store chain. A fountain commemorating the life and work of Austin retail pioneer Jacob Schmidt is located in the outdoor plaza at Frost Bank Tower.

Check out Frost Bank during various stages of construction

* Photo by Matt Wright on flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in News on May 8, 2006 11:07 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

odamo

i have heard rumors that the architect is from rice and wanted it to resemble the rice owl. so take that, horns. i have no idea if it is true or not. i hate research.

Rich

Are you kidding? An owl? That building looks like one thing: an electric nose hair clipper.

Godzilla's Ganja

I've always thought that building looks like a giant cicada shell. Like one of these days those wedges on the top are going to open up and a giant metal and glass robotic cicada is going to emerge, ready to mate. When he rubs his wings together for his mating call, the sound will be so incredibly loud that it shatters all the windows for miles around. The city is thrown into chaos as citizens scramble to escape.

[cut to scene of Will Wynn frantically pacing around the wreckage of his office, cell phone to his ear, on-hold music for the department of homeland security plays in the background]

Alex Jones, screaming something about owls and Bohemian Grove retreats as a black helicopter lands in the parking lot across the street from the Frost building. Out pour several guys in black army gear. They assemble what looks to be some kind of lazer cannon. They fire it at the cicada. A bright stream of light hits it's abdomen and appears to paralyze the creature. The lazer burns out, but the cicada is immobilized if not dead. Citizens erupt in cheer and rejoice after a brief silence.

The revelry stops when the smoldering exterior panels of the cicada start falling off, revealing a still living monster. He peels himself out of this shell (you know, like cicadas do) and continues his distructive rampage in search of a mate.

Meanwhile, the cicada's mating call has unintentionally awakened another creature: a Barton Springs Salamander. But this salamander isn't the friendly little kind that we all know and love. Chemicals from AMD's runoff have transformed it into a giant, glowing amphibian.

He crawls up from of the chilly depths of the aquifer, cranky and very hungry. He makes his way towards the deafening sound that has stirred him from his radioactive slumber. He seeks revenge. And maybe lunch.

[what next? I'm thinking a big fight scene on the congress street bridge. Something that stirrs up the bats?]