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  #1981  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2019, 3:43 AM
Restless One Restless One is offline
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Let's go this way with it. This is from the base of the old Frost tower:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.4260...7i13312!8i6656

And the Towers at Park Lane:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.4631...7i16384!8i8192

If we can all agree that the old Frost is 300' and I believe 8" officially, then maybe we can get some perspective.

If somebody knows how to put them side by side, even on an offsite link, that might help, but I'm guessing the TaPL are closer to 300 or so feet than the 368 they claim.
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  #1982  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2019, 4:04 AM
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Intuitively, I'd agree. Also, the Broadway seems to be on lower ground. Did they say 368' from the ground, or from River level? I know it sounds like a funny question, given the Towers' distance from the river, but you never know.
I don't remember them mentioning the river. I had emailed them with the question and they went a step further and sent me an information packet about the residences, and they included a note with the height.

I also don't think that the old Frost Bank Tower is 300 feet. I'm not sure where that height came from officially. Where I got it from was from a friend from Chicago who has been collecting building heights since the 1970s. He's maintained a list of thousands of buildings during that time. The World Almanac even contacted him for their high rise reference pages. I don't know where the height came from, and I'm not sure he did either. It may have been from an earlier issue of the World Almanac. They used to include buildings over 300 feet, but as more and more cities have added taller buildings, they started edging out the height tiers. Now I think they only include buildings over 400 feet. It's been a while since I've gotten an updated World Almanac, so they might not even list buildings over 500 feet. The height that I have for the "old Frost Bank Tower" is 277 feet, and that came from Google Earth. A lot of San Antonio's building heights from that list were wrong. It said the Marriott Rivercenter is 546 feet, but I also recall an old height listed for it of 441 feet. The tallest I've been able to measure it was 455 feet, same for the Weston Centre. I also remember the height for the Nix Professional Building was 375 feet, but I think that was including the flagpole. I've only ever been able to measure it at 307 feet. I'm not sure why there are so many incorrect heights for San Antonio. I mean, it happens. Typos happen, and building designs can change between the time that their construction is announced to when it actually starts construction. And there wasn't always a standardized way of measuring buildings. Flagpoles and signs/masts were counted, but now they aren't officially.
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  #1983  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2019, 4:19 AM
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
I don't remember them mentioning the river. I had emailed them with the question and they went a step further and sent me an information packet about the residences, and they included a note with the height.

I also don't think that the old Frost Bank Tower is 300 feet. I'm not sure where that height came from officially. Where I got it from was from a friend from Chicago who has been collecting building heights since the 1970s. He's maintained a list of thousands of buildings during that time. The World Almanac even contacted him for their high rise reference pages. I don't know where the height came from, and I'm not sure he did either. It may have been from an earlier issue of the World Almanac. They used to include buildings over 300 feet, but as more and more cities have added taller buildings, they started edging out the height tiers. Now I think they only include buildings over 400 feet. It's been a while since I've gotten an updated World Almanac, so they might not even list buildings over 500 feet. The height that I have for the "old Frost Bank Tower" is 277 feet, and that came from Google Earth. A lot of San Antonio's building heights from that list were wrong. It said the Marriott Rivercenter is 546 feet, but I also recall an old height listed for it of 441 feet. The tallest I've been able to measure it was 455 feet, same for the Weston Centre. I also remember the height for the Nix Professional Building was 375 feet, but I think that was including the flagpole. I've only ever been able to measure it at 307 feet. I'm not sure why there are so many incorrect heights for San Antonio. I mean, it happens. Typos happen, and building designs can change between the time that their construction is announced to when it actually starts construction. And there wasn't always a standardized way of measuring buildings. Flagpoles and signs/masts were counted, but now they aren't officially.
I think the discrepancies come from the difference between street level and river level. For some reason, and I don't know that I've seen confirmation of this, but I think buildings in the DT core were "officially" measured from river level, maybe to make them seem taller in publications leading up to Hemisfair '68.

Depending on how you measure river level, it could explain the variances in height you are finding. I think we can agree that SA is not as tall a city as "official" heights would have people believe.

(And I would love your friend's job. I'm assuming a lot of rooftop access comes with it from buildings all over.)
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  #1984  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2019, 2:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
I don't remember them mentioning the river. I had emailed them with the question and they went a step further and sent me an information packet about the residences, and they included a note with the height.

I also don't think that the old Frost Bank Tower is 300 feet. I'm not sure where that height came from officially. Where I got it from was from a friend from Chicago who has been collecting building heights since the 1970s. He's maintained a list of thousands of buildings during that time. The World Almanac even contacted him for their high rise reference pages. I don't know where the height came from, and I'm not sure he did either. It may have been from an earlier issue of the World Almanac. They used to include buildings over 300 feet, but as more and more cities have added taller buildings, they started edging out the height tiers. Now I think they only include buildings over 400 feet. It's been a while since I've gotten an updated World Almanac, so they might not even list buildings over 500 feet. The height that I have for the "old Frost Bank Tower" is 277 feet, and that came from Google Earth. A lot of San Antonio's building heights from that list were wrong. It said the Marriott Rivercenter is 546 feet, but I also recall an old height listed for it of 441 feet. The tallest I've been able to measure it was 455 feet, same for the Weston Centre. I also remember the height for the Nix Professional Building was 375 feet, but I think that was including the flagpole. I've only ever been able to measure it at 307 feet. I'm not sure why there are so many incorrect heights for San Antonio. I mean, it happens. Typos happen, and building designs can change between the time that their construction is announced to when it actually starts construction. And there wasn't always a standardized way of measuring buildings. Flagpoles and signs/masts were counted, but now they aren't officially.
I met Vito at least 15 years ago (or more) in the early days of this forum. Nice guy.
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  #1985  
Old Posted Sep 18, 2019, 11:32 PM
SAhometown SAhometown is offline
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Here is a great article about the Frost Tower.
https://www.expressnews.com/entertai...n-14449722.php

Nice little video showing surrounding construction from the top floor!
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  #1986  
Old Posted Sep 19, 2019, 2:59 PM
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Here is a great article about the Frost Tower.
https://www.expressnews.com/entertai...n-14449722.php

Nice little video showing surrounding construction from the top floor!
Since this is behind a fire wall... what was the 'one regret'?
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  #1987  
Old Posted Sep 19, 2019, 5:37 PM
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Since this is behind a fire wall... what was the 'one regret'?
"As happy as he is with the building, Smith said he has one regret — that Tom C. Frost Jr., great-grandson of company founder Col. Thomas Claiborne "T.C." Frost, didn't live to see its completion."
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  #1988  
Old Posted Sep 19, 2019, 6:22 PM
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Originally Posted by JRG1974 View Post
"As happy as he is with the building, Smith said he has one regret — that Tom C. Frost Jr., great-grandson of company founder Col. Thomas Claiborne "T.C." Frost, didn't live to see its completion."
Cesar Pelli also died before it was finished. Together with Frost not seeing the finished building, pretty sad.

There is an article at Rivard Report about the Tower as well:

https://therivardreport.com/inside-f...e-with-a-view/
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  #1989  
Old Posted Sep 20, 2019, 3:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Restless One View Post
Cesar Pelli also died before it was finished. Together with Frost not seeing the finished building, pretty sad.

There is an article at Rivard Report about the Tower as well:

https://therivardreport.com/inside-f...e-with-a-view/
I didn't know he died. Man, that is really unfortunate. I have been waiting years for a glass building to be constructed in downtown, set against the backdrop of the old, established architecture of San Antonio, Texas. And I had nothing to do with the building and planning of the new Frost Tower, so I cannot imagine that feeling of incompleteness. In fact, as a man of words, I would be scared to have anything incompleted as I age on.
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  #1990  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2020, 4:04 PM
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Golden Hour last night! 3/4/20.

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  #1991  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2020, 3:08 PM
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Here's the link, anyway, ajarreguin3. It's a nice photo.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EDZ...4SOcWsjPPAlIlw
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  #1992  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2023, 11:44 PM
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The royal blue standard for San Antonio. Great building.

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  #1993  
Old Posted Nov 15, 2023, 3:29 PM
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The royal blue standard for San Antonio. Great building.

I really do love this building. The lighting at night is chefs kiss.
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  #1994  
Old Posted Nov 15, 2023, 5:57 PM
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I really do love this building. The lighting at night is chefs kiss.
The building is awesome. The garage is hideous.
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  #1995  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2023, 10:06 PM
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Anyone else notice the lighting has been this insanely turned down deep blue for over a month now? I'm surprised given the obvious time of year we're in and I'm wondering if there is a software issue.
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  #1996  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2023, 12:29 AM
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On the webcam just now it looks alternating red and white like a candy cane.

https://api.wetmet.net/widgets/strea...056a82ef176ceb
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  #1997  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2023, 6:53 AM
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San Antonio's answer to Bank of America Plaza.



There are at least 3 different parts where there are just no lights working that I could spot from this angle, however.
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  #1998  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2023, 7:15 AM
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On the webcam just now, it looks alternating red and white like a candy cane.

https://api.wetmet.net/widgets/strea...056a82ef176ceb
On the cam, it appears to be red and white, but they are red and green. The lights on towers are all working.

Also, the downtown buildings with Christmas lightning are lit up red and green, such as TOA, Tower Life, BOA Plaza, Hilton Palacio Del Rio, etc.
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