Frost Bank Tower
Encyclopedia
The Frost Bank Tower is a skyscraper in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States. Standing 515 feet (157 m) tall with 33 floors, it is the third tallest building in Austin, behind The Austonian
The Austonian
The Austonian is a residential skyscraper in Downtown Austin, Texas. At tall with 56 floors, the building is the tallest in Austin, overtaking the 360 Condominiums. The tower is also the tallest all-residential building in the state of Texas and Texas' tallest building outside of Houston or...

 and the 360 Condominiums
Austin 360 Condominiums Tower
The Austin 360 Condominiums Tower is a residential skyscraper at 360 Nueces Street, Downtown Austin, Texas, United States, standing 562' 9" tall with 44 floors and has 430 homes with over 14,000 sf of retail space. The building topped out in November 2007, and construction was officially completed...

. It was developed by Cousins Properties
Cousins Properties
Cousins Properties, Inc. , headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a real estate investment trust, and one of the oldest publicly traded real estate companies in the country. It was formed in 1958 by Tom Cousins and has been publicly traded since 1962. It became a real estate investment trust in...

 from November 2001 to December 2003 as a class A office building with 525000 sq ft (48,774 m²) of leasable space. It was the first high-rise building to be constructed in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 after the 9/11 attacks. The building was officially dedicated in January 2004.

The Frost Bank Tower was designed by Duda/Paine Architects, LLP and HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc. is an international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas . It was founded in 1939 by Harwood K. Smith, a native of Chicago and graduate of Texas A&M University....

. It carries the highest logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 in the city at 420 ft (128 m). This advertises the San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

-based Frost National Bank
Frost National Bank
Frost National Bank is a nationally chartered bank founded in 1868 and based in San Antonio, Texas with more than 110 financial centers across Texas. Frost is the largest Texas-based bank with operations only in Texas, and is the 62nd largest U.S. bank by asset size...

, whose Austin headquarters and insurance division are in the building. Offices in the building besides Frost Bank include the Austin offices of Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

 and Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....

, as well as the headquarters of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), managers of the Permanent University Fund
Permanent University Fund
The Permanent University Fund is one of the methods by which the State of Texas funds public higher education within the state. A portion of the returns from the PUF are annually directed towards the Available University Fund , which distributes the funds according to provisions set forth by the...

.
The silvery blue color glass facade was first used on the Reuters Building in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.
Cousins sold the building in 2006 to Equity Office Properties Trust
Equity Office Properties Trust
Equity Office Properties Trust, formed in 1976 by Samuel Zell and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, was the largest owner of office buildings in the United States until the Blackstone Group acquired them in February 2007 for $23 billion plus the assumption of $16 billion in debt...

 for $188 million before they sold the building to Thomas Properties the very same year.

History

In 1998, T.Stacy & Associates consolidated tracts of land at the building site, at the time a vacant lot, and sold it to Cousins Properties
Cousins Properties
Cousins Properties, Inc. , headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a real estate investment trust, and one of the oldest publicly traded real estate companies in the country. It was formed in 1958 by Tom Cousins and has been publicly traded since 1962. It became a real estate investment trust in...

 in 2001. Their original plan called for a 352 ft (107 m) building with 27 floors, but the final plan called for a 515 ft (157 m) tall building with 33 floors. As the building began construction on November 27, 2001, it became the tallest building in the United States of America to be constructed after the September 11 attacks. Construction was finished about 2 years later in 2003, and the tower was officially dedicated in 2004. It became the tallest building in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, and the fourth tallest building outside of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 and Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, Texas (excluding the Tower of the Americas
Tower of the Americas
Tower of the Americas is a 750-foot observation tower/restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. The tower was designed by San Antonio architect O'Neil Ford and was built as the theme structure of the 1968 World's Fair, HemisFair '68....

 in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

). In August 2003 cost of the building was estimated at $137 million.

After Austin's skyscraper construction boom, which began in 2007, Frost Bank Tower was soon surpassed in height by the 360 Condominiums at 563 ft (172 m) in 2008. As of March 2011, it is the 54th tallest building in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. In 2006, Cousins Properties decided to sell the building for $188 million dollars to Equity Office Properties, whom eventually sold it to Thomas Properties. Currently, there are many notable tenants in the building, including Frost Bank, Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

, Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....

, UTIMCO, and Heritage Title Co.

Architecture

Designed by HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc. is an international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas . It was founded in 1939 by Harwood K. Smith, a native of Chicago and graduate of Texas A&M University....

 and Duda/Paine Architects, LLP, the Frost Bank Tower is considered one of the most recognizable buildings in Austin. The building starts with a rectangular shape on the ground that eventually becomes a square point in the crown. The base of the building is expressed in honed finish limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 while the main superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...

 of the building is a blue low-e glass skin
Insulated glazing
Insulated glazing also known as double glazing are double or triple glass window panes separated by an air or other gas filled space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope....

, which is a thicker type of glass, that covers the entire tower. The Frost Bank Tower is one of only two places in the world with blue low-e glass skin, the other being the Reuters Building
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, which was the earlier structure. The folded panes of the building step back to create a segmented pyramidal form. Lighting covers the crown, where a section of the building 150 ft (46 m) lights up, and sometimes changes color for special occasions, such as the 2006 Rose Bowl
2006 Rose Bowl
The 2006 Rose Bowl Game, played on January 4, 2006, was a football game that served as the national championship of the 2005-2006 Bowl Championship Series...

, when the Austin-based University of Texas Longhorns
Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate football team representing The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. The team currently competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National...

 defeated the USC Trojans
University of Southern California Trojans football
The USC Trojans football program, established in 1888, represents the University of Southern California in college football. USC is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I FBS and the Pacific-12 Conference . The Trojans have been a football powerhouse throughout NCAA...

. More than 200,000 sq ft (60,960 sq m) of glass was used for the facade of the building alone and 45,000 sq ft (13,716 sq m) of glass The building also contains an 11 level parking garage with spaces for more than 1,400 vehicles.

Critics' Responses

There have been many critics and other people that have stated their comments on the building.
John Kelso, a local newspaper columnist, says that the building resembles an enormous set of nose hair trimmers. Austin Chronicle readers voted the Frost Bank Tower as the best new building in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008. It was also voted for best architecture in 2004 and 2005. The newspaper also says that the "owl face of the Frost Bank Tower" helps keep Austin "characteristically weird", meaning that it makes Austin unique
Keep Austin Weird
Keep Austin Weird is the slogan adopted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to promote small businesses in Austin, Texas. The phrase has long been believed to have been coined in 2000 by Red Wassenich, who says he made the comment after giving a pledge to an Austin radio station...

. The tower was awarded the 2005 International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) Award of Merit for lighting design by Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design Inc. for its "second set of narrowly focused accent lights that showcase the vertical mullions at the setback near the building top" and "monumental custom sconces that add scale and create a welcoming frame around the opening portals of the lobby". The building also won the 2003 Texas Construction Magazine Award of Merit.

Amenities

The Frost Bank Tower contains a wide variety of amenities. Such amenities in the building include conference facilities, building concierge
Concierge
A concierge is an employee who either works in shifts within, or lives on the premises of an apartment building or a hotel and serves guests with duties similar to those of a butler. The position can also be maintained by a security officer over the 'graveyard' shift. A similar position, known as...

, 24-hour cardkey access, fully equipped fitness center
Health club
A health club is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.-Main workout area:...

, state-of-the-art telecommunication systems, tenant controlled HVAC
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...

, upscale restaurants, deli
Delicatessen
Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

/carry-out restaurants
Take-out
Take-out or takeout , carry-out , take-away , parcel , or tapau , is food purchased at a...

, a coffee shop
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...

, and a dry-cleaner. Following tradition, a tin cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...

 was embedded into the concrete of each floor during construction, with the last being added on May 27, 2003. Also, a 30 feet (9.1 m) cedar tree was hoisted to the top of the mechanical penthouse during the topping out ceremony.

Position in Austin's skyline

Frost Bank Tower is the third tallest building in Austin at 515 ft (157 m), behind 360 Condominiums and The Austonian
The Austonian
The Austonian is a residential skyscraper in Downtown Austin, Texas. At tall with 56 floors, the building is the tallest in Austin, overtaking the 360 Condominiums. The tower is also the tallest all-residential building in the state of Texas and Texas' tallest building outside of Houston or...

 in height. The building covers most of its block, which is located near the center of downtown at 4th Street and Congress Avenue
Congress Avenue
Congress Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Austin, Texas. The street is a six-lane, tree lined avenue that cuts through the middle of the city from far south Austin and goes over Lady Bird Lake leading to the Texas State Capitol in the heart of downtown....

. Its location in the skyline, matched with its height, excited Austinites and was known as a centerpiece to the skyline.

See also

  • Sixth Street
  • Downtown Austin
    Downtown Austin
    Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas. Downtown is located on the north bank of the Colorado River. The approximate borders of Downtown include Lamar Boulevard to the west, 11th Street and sometimes Martin Luther King, Jr...

  • The Austonian
    The Austonian
    The Austonian is a residential skyscraper in Downtown Austin, Texas. At tall with 56 floors, the building is the tallest in Austin, overtaking the 360 Condominiums. The tower is also the tallest all-residential building in the state of Texas and Texas' tallest building outside of Houston or...

  • List of tallest buildings in Austin
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