What was the first high-rise apartment building in Austin? This is obviously a trick question, but the people who keep track of this stuff will generally tell you it's the 15-story Cambridge Tower, which opened in 1965. Using the modern (and not entirely agreed-upon) definition of a high-rise, they're absolutely correct -- especially because we're not counting the ...
history
In 1937, Austin’s Growing Skyline Saw Towers ‘Shooting Up’
On July 29, 1937, the Austin Statesman printed a special edition of its daily paper commemorating the end of construction on the Buchanan Dam project. One page, as seen above, celebrated the steady growth of Austin's skyline and the economic prosperity it represented -- with its centerpiece, the 307-foot tower of the University of Texas' Main Building, having opened earlier ...
Central Austin’s Baffling Street Grid Is Entirely One Man’s Fault
Have you noticed that Austin’s street grid appears to exist outside the standard bounds of geometry? 12th Street jogs out at an angle once it crosses I-35, 28th Street is parallel to 27th Street — but not to 29th Street — and First Street intersects with Seventh Street (just past its intersection with Fifth Street). The man at fault for this jumble is William Sandusky, whose ...
At La Vista de Lopez, an East Austin Holdout Imagines a Tower of Its Own
After holding out against development in a rising district of East Austin for more than 30 years, the Lopez house isn't giving up -- instead, it's planning to go up. This historic single-family home just east of I-35 at 809 East Ninth Street, officially known as the Routon-Alvarez-Lopez House, has enjoyed a long life despite a universe of growth around it due to its ...
Demolition at the 6 X Guadalupe Tower Site Could Arrive Next Month
To build the new tallest tower in Austin, you've got to break a few eggs -- or, in this case, demolish a completely unremarkable hotel. In other words, the Extended Stay America now occupying the famously "cursed" former home of the late Alamo Hotel at the northwest corner of West Sixth and Guadalupe Streets is not long for this world, with recent city documents pointing to its ...
