Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[the Genral]

Sir, you have a severe talant...that restoration looks incredible! Mind if I ask how long it took and how its being used today? I don't imagine he can just drive it on public roads...

[corvairkeith]

Thanks, my part of the restoration took about four months for all the rust repair, body, and paint work. The whole thing took about two years but it's pretty much a new car now. Everything has been rebuilt or replaced. It's legal to drive on public roads as long as you keep the lights and siren off. In Texas you can recreate a police car as long as it's not the current model/ paint scheme. I'm sure being a retired cop helps if you get pulled over as well.

[BevoLJ]

Amazing work!

[KevinFromTexas]

Ha! I saw your post just now, Keith. That's great! You have a sweet setup there. I see you work on bicycles also I guess.

[JoninATX]

That is awesome corvairkeith, you have an amazing talent.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/l...olden-t/nYxTh/

HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
Posted: 9:31 p.m. Saturday, July 20, 2013
Austin man who crafted Capitol star earns ‘Golden Texan’ honor

American-Statesman Staff

Sitting at a table in 1957 enjoying a frosty beer at what used to be the Cottage Café on Burnet Road, William “Bill” Williamson picked up a pen and a napkin and began to design what would eventually become one of the most iconic features in the Texas State Capitol Building: the bronze star measuring 8 feet from point-to-point hanging 218 feet above the floor of the rotunda.

Williamson, now 87, was recently named a Golden Texan by the Texas Health Care Association for his commitment and contributions to the state in which he grew up, including the little-known construction of the star that more than 52,000 people walked beneath in May and June alone.

http://www.utexas.edu/features/2010/...wer_alphabets/

A Towering Mystery Solved

Why ancient alphabets adorn a university icon

Sept. 6, 2010

When then-Harvard University Professor John Huehnergard and his wife and colleague Jo Ann Hackett first visited The University of Texas at Austin last spring, they couldn’t help but notice the ancient Phoenician and Hebrew letters that adorn the Tower. After all, Hackett, a Hebrew scholar, and Huehnergard, who teaches Semitic linguistics and writing systems, have a natural curiosity for language.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered what generations of students have seen: five different gold-leafed alphabets — Egyptian hieroglyphics (although technically not considered an alphabet), Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek and Latin — totaling 113 letters on the 73-year-old building.

Huehnergard and his students traced the idea to William J. Battle (1870-1955), a well-respected professor whose strong influence on the campus design can still be seen today. It’s hard to find a building or even a tree on campus he didn’t touch in some way during his tenure as Classics professor, dean and interim president. Most notable among them was construction of the Main Building and its Tower, which Battle spearheaded.

Classmate Lewis focused on Cret, the prominent French architect who designed 19 buildings on campus, including the Tower, which was completed in 1937.

[priller]

Hey thanks for these links. I've always wondered about the alphabets on the Tower, also. Very unexpected to see them.

[KevinFromTexas]

I'm fascinated by those two buildings. I go on Flickr sometimes just to explore them. There are some really neat photos of dome tours of the Capitol.

[KevinFromTexas]

A neat before and after photo gallery from the UT Tower observation deck. By the way, the south view says it was taken in 1977. There is no way that photo is from 1977. The Westgate Tower is missing from the photo, among others. The Westgate Tower was finished in 1967. So there's no way it could have been from 1977. It's from sometime in the early 60s, but no later than 1965.

http://utaustin.tumblr.com/post/5698.../ut-tower-77th

July marks 77th anniversary of the opening of the UT Tower observation deck. See how things have changed with sustainability in mind. -- http://ow.ly/nvCzK

What’s your favorite Tower view? Share your photos on our Facebook wall or by using ‪#‎UTTower‬.

Top photo: View from the UT Tower looking east, March 2013.
Bottom photo: View from the UT Tower looking east, 1967. (Courtesy: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History)

The University of Texas at Austin Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/UTAustinTX/photos_stream

[Armybrat]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

A neat before and after photo gallery from the UT Tower observation deck. By the way, the south view says it was taken in 1977. There is no way that photo is from 1977. The Westgate Tower is missing from the photo, among others. The Westgate Tower was finished in 1967. So there's no way it could have been from 1977. It's from sometime in the early 60s, but no later than 1965.






The University of Texas at Austin Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/UTAustinTX/photos_stream

Note the old Dish Field ballpark between the football stadium and the Texas Memorial Museum. I can just make out Billy Goat Hill.

[DoubleC]

I wish they would have done something about that eye sore that is the parking garage on the West side of DKR. It looks gray and dull, thankfully we can't see it while driving on 35.

[BevoLJ]

On the west side? You mean the ramps that kinda look like a parking garage? That is for people to walk up to the upper decks. There is no parking in there that I know of.

Just east of the stadium there is a parking garage, but west of the stadium is the creek.

[hookem]

Yeah, the concrete structure under the large west side upper deck isn't a parking garage. It's Bellmont Hall and large pedestrian ramps for the stadium. Bellmont has offices, classrooms and other facilities. Back when I was a student, we'd go play racquetball in courts located inside that building.

http://www.utrecsports.org/facilities/locations/bel.php

[DoubleC]

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

On the west side? You mean the ramps that kinda look like a parking garage? That is for people to walk up to the upper decks. There is no parking in there that I know of.

Just east of the stadium there is a parking garage, but west of the stadium is the creek.

Ramps, I guess that would be a terrible place to have a garage now that I think about it.

[KevinFromTexas]

There's also a 10-story building built inside the westside upper deck. It was built along with the upper deck expansion in 1972.

http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/bel.html

http://www.utrecsports.org/facilities/locations/bel.php

Constructed in 1972, Bellmont Hall is an 11-level, 500-foot building which was added within the support structure of Memorial Stadium's west side upper deck to house the offices of Intercollegiate Athletics, physical education facilities and lecture halls. The facility was named for L. Theo Bellmont, UT athletic director from 1913 to 1957, who was instrumental in the creation of Memorial Stadium and the Southwest Conference. With his support, the first UT men's intramural sports program was organized, and Gregory Gym and Anna Hiss Gym were built.

Bellmont Hall provides facilities for handball, racquetball, martial arts, squash, weight training/conditioning, and dance. In addition to RecSports activities, the building also continues to house the offices of the UT Intercollegiate Athletics coaches and administrators, the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, and the athletics ticket office.

[KevinFromTexas]

You beat me to it there, hookem!

[Urbannizer]

I guess this is the most appropriate place for this, I came across a never-built condo tower. I think it was a proposal of some sort that dates back to 2007, because the same pdf file where I found this also has old models of developments for Houston that were announced during that time. I may be off, but I counted 26-floors. Gensler was the architect.



Seen here on page 28:
http://www.modelworksinc.com/prj/mw-bro.pdf

[H2O]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

I guess this is the most appropriate place for this, I came across a never-built condo tower. I think it was a proposal of some sort that dates back to 2007, because the same pdf file where I found this also has old models of developments for Houston that were announced during that time. I may be off, but I counted 26-floors. Gensler was the architect.



Seen here on page 28:
http://www.modelworksinc.com/prj/mw-bro.pdf

That looks like the original design for the 4 Seasons Condo tower.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, that's a rendering for the original proposal of the Four Seasons Residences. It was first proposed in either 1999 or 2000. I emailed them for the height back then and it was planned as a 328 foot building with 28 floors. It was of course never built in that form. But the project was built and even taller. The Four Seasons Residences today is 401 feet with 32 floors. It was finished in 2010. That site was also the location of a proposed twin office tower to the San Jacinto Center. It would have been 328 feet with 21 floors. So we had two opportunities for a tower on that site that failed, but still wound up with a taller tower anyway. There was even a different design for Four Seasons Residences way back in either 1997 or 1998 along with the planned Vignette Corp. campus. The rendering in the paper showed a mansard roof with a sort of quasi-gothic rival style.

I really liked that tower. The facade was interesting and it had a cool roof. I guess we did get something similar with The Monarch's "butterfly wings" roof.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

That site was also the location of a proposed twin office tower to the San Jacinto Center. It would have been 328 feet with 21 floors.

I found the rendering for that version in the September 1985 edition of Texas Monthly.



These are also from that same issue:














And the last one was an ad for a bank. I think it was First City, but I can't remember. Anyway, I cropped the aerial photo out of the ad awhile back and meant to post it but never did.




It shows 816 Congress with the old facade, and you can also see part of what's now the Bank One Tower (on the far right) when it used to have the gold reflective glass.

The convention center hadn't been built yet and the only two highrises along the north shore of Town Lake was the Lakeside Apartments and the Sheraton Crest.