I looked at the outside of the existing Frost Bank entrance (via Google ) and other than a setback at the first floor there wasn't anything spectacular or noteworthy about it.
It's not real clear from the few renderings I've seen what the entrance will look like with this new building, but when an awning was mentioned I thought it would be like putting socks on a statue.
The site doesn't really lend itself to that, and even if they add something sculptural on that one corner it would feel like it was just done for the sake of doing it.
The comments by the commission were mostly useless with the exception of the comments regarding the garage (they have to dress it up), and how the site interfaces with the creek. It's basically retail space on the street other than the one corner with the sidewalk. So the site is a giant parking garage that just happens to be next to the creek as opposed to any real kind of link which is very disappointing.
The one person who spoke made some good points. There is really nothing about this building that makes me think of San Antonio, it doesn't seem like it would be energy efficient, it seems like it would cause worse glare than other buildings and be more of a risk for birds to crash into (maybe there's way to avoid either of these?).
I think what we have here is a building designed and constrained by its budget. No difficult curves or atrium. Nothing really intricate on the exterior, just clean lines and a different crown, and it's blue glass. It's going to stand out (or look out of place) until something gets built around it.
It still kind of looks like a shark bit off the top of the building. Maybe they need to rework the crown? Flattening it takes away the drama. I tried adding concentrically smaller offset and steeper additions and it seemed to either look similar to Frost Austin, a drill bit, or an asparagus spear.
(one of the fat ones that snaps way up high!)
It's tough to please everyone
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