Hitting the Bricks at Downtown Austin’s Finest Masonry Residential Towers

Image: Sabine on Fifth / Facebook

One of the more common complaints leveled against the ongoing growth of downtown Austin condo and apartment towers is that the new buildings rising around us all look the same. General architectural trends and the material similarities of most modern structures have contributed to that argument, at least in some cases, but the criticism we hear the most about similar-looking buildings isn’t even really that complicated — they’re all just “boring glass boxes,” people often say.

We like glass just fine, but when you look around you’ll find plenty of residential tower architecture in the central city featuring brick exteriors, using materials that for many have a deeper sense of permanence. Some are old, some are new, some use real bricks and others are probably using that faux brick veneer stuff — either way, the point is that they aren’t “glass boxes” and have a completely different feel:

Westgate Tower

Two views of Westgate Tower. Images: Wikimedia Commons

One of Austin’s original residential towers, the love-it-or-hate-it modernist brick exterior of Westgate Tower by renowned New York architect Edward Durell Stone and the local design duo of Arthur Fehr and Charles Granger has graced the northwestern corner of downtown near the State Capitol grounds since 1966. 

The Ashton

An ad for Acme Brick using the Ashton apartments as an example of brick’s use in a modern building. Image: Texas Architect

This downtown apartment tower isn’t old, unless you think 10 years old is old — although considering Austin’s growth since its completion in 2009, it feels like this tower’s been at 101 Colorado Street for a pretty long time. Thanks to its red brick elements, the look is still markedly different than other new-build residential structures around here.

Gables Republic Square / Hotel ZaZa

Looking up at the Hotel ZaZa / Gables Republic Square tower from Guadalupe Street. Photo by James Rambin.

Perhaps the most authentic masonry tower built in the city in the last several decades, the recently-opened 24-story brick structure at 401 Guadalupe Street contains the Gables Republic Square apartments and the Hotel ZaZa, which has done some interesting things with bricks on the ground floor as well. Representatives of the project have told us before that the process of building a modern tower with masonry was challenging, to say the least — but you can’t argue with the results.

Brown Building

The Brown Building’s entrance facing Colorado Street. Image: James Rambin

Originally completed in 1938 as an office building with a masonry exterior by architect Charles Henry Page, the Brown now contains some of downtown’s most historically interesting apartments after an early-2000s loft renovation. 

Sabine on Fifth

Image: Sabine on Fifth / Facebook

Converted from a 1984 office complex, the Sabine on Fifth condos don’t really look like any other residential building around, in our opinion — with their modern, but still classy brick exterior, they’re kind of underratedly cool in a big-city way we don’t see much of here compared to somewhere like, say, Chicago. The tower’s proximity to Waller Creek and the Sabine Street Promenade makes Sabine one of the more well-situated downtown Austin condo communities — plus, the Hilton next door blocks a lot of sound from I-35, making the area downright tranquil by downtown standards.

Nokonah

Exterior view of the Nokonah from Duncan Park

A small condo tower rising a scant 11 floors at 901 West Ninth Street on the far western edge of what we consider downtown Austin, the Nokonah was unmatched as a luxury community at the time of its completion in 2002 — and as we know from some of the other communities on this list, bricks are a big component of high-end residential buildings. They just feel classy, okay? At this tower, you’ll find plenty of bricks used in the exterior, with the traditional red and darker slate versions making appearances.

Brazos Place

A view of the Brazos Place condos from the corner of Brazos and Eighth Streets.

You don’t see a lot of tall buildings in town with the light gray masonry of Brazos Place, but it’s a striking design — originally opened in 1950 as the Commodore Perry Hotel with design by local architect Hugo Franz Kuehne, the building underwent an office conversion in 1984. Third time’s the charm and all that, so in 2008 the former office opened once more as loft-style apartments. The beauty of its design, bricks included, made it look good during all three of its lives.

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