Falling Glass Leads to Temporary Closure of W Hotel (and Surrounding Lanes of Traffic)

Falling glass has plagued the W Hotel recently. On Monday, a few glass panels fell more than 20 feet from the side of the downtown hotel; yesterday a glass panel shattered in place and broke two pieces under it, with glass falling onto the closed pool area. Luckily, no one was injured.

Given this chain of events, the W Hotel has closed for the time being so that all the balcony glass on the building can be replaced. That's almost a thousand panels of glass!

Traffic lanes surrounding three sides of the hotel have been closed by the city through next week so that drivers and pedestrians will be kept safe from the possibility of falling glass. 3rd Street between Lavaca and Guadalupe is completely shut down, and so are the two west lanes of Lavaca between 2nd and 3rd and the two east lanes of Guadalupe between 2nd and 3rd.

The staff at the W is unsure what has been causing the glass to fall, but apologizes to the city and anyone affected by these events. In a statement released last evening, Beau Armstrong, the CEO of Stratus Properties said, "The entire team here at the W couldn't be more devastated that this has occurred, but unfortunately after consulting with numerous experts we still do not know why this has happened... we apologize to our hotel guests, our residents, our neighbors, and to the City. We will make this right."