Earlier this year, we looked back fondly on the history of downtown Austin's Chase Tower, which sported a glowing golden exterior from its construction in 1974, until a remodel in 1994 gave it the rather drab look we have a hard time remembering today. Chase Tower in 2018, showing the new exterior installed back in 1994. Image: Lincoln Property Company Austin old-timers ...
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The TOWERS.net Austin Gift Guide
The holidays are here, which can only mean one thing -- it's gift guide season! Seriously, everyone is putting these things out. We decided we'd try and make one that didn't suck. Austin, here are the good gifts: The TOWERS.net Austin City Coloring Book C'mon, you know we had to start with this one. Our new coloring book includes a ton of our favorite buildings and scenes ...
The Driskill Hotel’s Rooftop ‘Bungalow’ is a Forgotten Austin Oddity
Austin, have we collectively forgotten the fact that there's a house sitting on top of the Driskill Hotel? No kidding, it's really up there. See for yourself: Specifically, it's perched atop the Driskill's 12-story annex tower, which is connected to the original 1886 hotel building and contains many of its rooms. The annex itself is historic, dating back to 1929 -- and ...
After a Century of Snacking, Barton Springs’ Zilker Cafe Looks Forward
Swimming leads to snacking. That's been a fact of life at Austin's Barton Springs Pool for at least a century, with the first mention of concessions served to bathers at the spring-fed swimming pool -- "hamburger and the like" -- appearing in the Austin Statesman in 1918. But in 2016, the Zilker Cafe at Barton Springs closed and stayed closed. Turns out the pool's 1960s-era ...
A Field Guide to Austin’s Art Deco and Moderne Architecture
As part of our ongoing love affair with Virginia McAlester’s 1984 book, “A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture,” we're occasionally taking a look at different architectural styles described in the book and hunting down good examples of them around Austin. Last time, we ...