Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[migol24]

Originally Posted by 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.

How do you guys remember all this? Especially remembering who you'd emailed and what response you got. Crazy!

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by migol24

How do you guys remember all this? Especially remembering who you'd emailed and what response you got. Crazy!

I've got a database of building heights in a spreadsheet file. I don't remember who I emailed, probably either the developer or architect.

[LoneStarMike]

A youtube video featuring a bunch of photos (and a song) about places/festivals/musicians/people in Austin from 1965-1995.

Do You Remember Austin (Back In The Good Ole Days)

• Video Link

[KevinFromTexas]

Nice ones. That last image would have been sometime in 1984. One American Center and 816 Congress were completed in 1984. Also that rendering above says 100 Congress was planned for completion in 1986, but it didn't finish until 1987 along with One Congress Plaza, San Jacinto Center and the Four Seasons Hotel. 301 Congress was completed in 1986, along with the Capitol Tower, William P. Clement State Office Bldg and the Omni Hotel. So looking at that image I see 301 Congress missing, along with 100 Congress, One Congress Plaza, San Jacinto Center, the Omni Hotel and the Capitol Tower - all of which were completed in either 1986 or 1987.

That rendering of 100 Congress also shows a slight design variation since the building doesn't have that split up the facade. The roof of the building has a "trench" running along it, but it wasn't carried through down the facade as it's shown there. They of course needed to leave the roof open to allow for ventilation for the buildings HVAC system.

[the Genral]

I watched those buildings go up with the same enthusiasm I have now with the current construction. At the time it seemed those were about as good as we were going to get and we were happy to get them. I like the split facade on the rendering of 100 Congress. It would have given it a slightly more interesting visual. When we talk about all the cranes in Austin now, I can remember cranes all over the city back in the 80's building boom. I'm witnessing my 3rd building boom in Austin. I wonder if I'll to see a 4th or perhaps 5th. I sort of feel this will be the last boom of this scale and future construction will be steady but spotty.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by the Genral

When we talk about all the cranes in Austin now, I can remember cranes all over the city back in the 80's building boom.

Do you remember that one year when the cover on the Southwesterrn Bell Yellow Pages for Austin was that photo taken at sunset of all the buildings under construction and the cranes were all silhouettes?

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Do you remember that one year when the cover on the Southwesterrn Bell Yellow Pages for Austin was that photo taken at sunset of all the buildings under construction and the cranes were all silhouettes?

I think so, wish I kept it. Funny, we actually used those things to look stuff up, businesses, phone #'s, and stuff...think you have it rough today? Well back in my day we didn't have EEElectronic gizmos to look stuff up, we had to sift through 1000's of pages from 20 lb books to find a plumber. Sometimes took up to 15 minutes or so.
I think there were lots of pictures taken of all the construction cranes at that time and someone coined them the state or city bird. Most of the cranes were along or close to Congress Ave. with some just nw of the Capitol complex. To check out most of it, you just needed to cruise down Congress then head north towards ut. I think One American Center was the Austonian of its day. One Congress Plaza was the other tower I was most interested in. Billed as a "gateway" to downtown when it was proposed, it was built on an angle to welcome northbound Congress Ave traffic to dt either by design or to fit on the property since the base is so long. I wonder how it would have looked if the pyramid faced due east and west? Once they were completed, I quickly learned that there are definately ugly sides to many of our buildings. During the 80's, an architectural publication once said of our skyline that it was best viewed from street or sidewalk level looking up at it as opposed to from a distance, not exactly a compliment. Austin was getting national attention from all the buildings going up but not a lot of positive press as to the design and architecture of those buildings. Blame the restrictions placed on the builders from our short sighted city council members at the time for that. I'm curious what the publications are saying now...

[KevinFromTexas]

Two of my favorite buildings in Austin are 100 Congress and One Congress Plaza. They're just such classic post modern office buildings.

[the Genral]

Mike, that was waaaay too cool! I remember most of that but some was before my time here, anything pre 80's, but they were talking about the good 'ole days when I got here, and I talked to many Austinites who lived them. Austin had quite the character back then with lots of stories to tell. Today's Austin while great, seems to have knocked the historic dust off its boots. We should keep this thread alive lest we forget...

[KevinFromTexas]

I used to love sitting and talking with and listening to my aunt and cousin talk about Austin and what it was like back in the 60s and 70s. It made me wish I had a time machine. There's just something really cool and fascinating about the idea of seeing and hearing what your hometown was like before your time.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

I used to love sitting and talking with and listening to my aunt and cousin talk about Austin and what it was like back in the 60s and 70s. It made me wish I had a time machine. There's just something really cool and fascinating about the idea of seeing and hearing what your hometown was like before your time.

And there were no shortages of people giving Austin history lessons, especially the ones who resented transplants from NY like me. Unlike today, there were quite a few locals who did not appreciate yankees infiltrating their territory. Three weeks after I got here in January '81, I got my ass kicked at a redneck biker bar on 183 just north of Burnet Rd just because 3 guys at the bar didn't like my New Yawk accent...and then they kicked over my Suzuki motorcycle just for good measure. I remembering wiping the dirt off me, licking my wounds, picking up my bike and saying to myself..."welcome to Austin!". I quickly learned to drop the NY accent and started saying...fixin, howdy, and ya'll, ripped the yellow NY tags off my car, and never had a problem again. Rednecks back then were so gullable I want to say the bar was called the Good Times. Ironic... Does anyone remember Cardi's off Burnet Rd north of IBM?
But my holyshit, this is a cool f'en city moment came with my first Aquafest and the crazy, and I mean crazy raft race. You will never see anything like it on Town Lake ever again. You could be a spectator and still have a blast. Maybe someone has a picture they could post of it here. I'd love to see it...

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by the Genral

And there were no shortages of people giving Austin history lessons, especially the ones who resented transplants from NY like me. Unlike today, there were quite a few locals who did not appreciate yankees infiltrating their territory. Three weeks after I got here in January '81, I got my ass kicked at a redneck biker bar on 183 just north of Burnet Rd just because 3 guys at the bar didn't like my New Yawk accent...and then they kicked over my Suzuki motorcycle just for good measure. I remembering wiping the dirt off me, licking my wounds, picking up my bike and saying to myself..."welcome to Austin!". I quickly learned to drop the NY accent and started saying...fixin, howdy, and ya'll, ripped the yellow NY tags off my car, and never had a problem again. Rednecks back then were so gullable I want to say the bar was called the Good Times. Ironic... Does anyone remember Cardi's off Burnet Rd north of IBM?
But my holyshit, this is a cool f'en city moment came with my first Aquafest and the crazy, and I mean crazy raft race. You will never see anything like it on Town Lake ever again. You could be a spectator and still have a blast. Maybe someone has a picture they could post of it here. I'd love to see it...

The resentment toward "Yankees" back then was way worse than the anti-Californian sentiment of today. I remember Cardi's. It was outside of Austin's city limits at the time in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. But it was actually between where MOPAC and the Hospital are today near Parmer Lane. It was torn down for the MOPAC right of away. MOPAC replaced Burnet/FM1325 at that location, and Parmer Lane was an undeveloped two lane country road that ended right there at Burnet.

[LoneStarMike]

I found a pretty good photo thread on a General Motors forum of all places. Some of the photos have been posted here, but there were many I'd never seen before.

Great old pics, Austin Texas


There were two that I really liked and had to save to my own hard drive.

The first was the model of what Robert Mueller Municipal Airport was supposed to look like.



I don't know what the black hole in the roof was all about, and I don't think I've ever seen any subsequent photos after Mueller was built that had that "diamond" section midway through the passenger concourse.

The second one was the night photo of Congress Avenue (in color) taken around Christmas in 1960. I tried to clean that one up a little. It shows an Austin Goodyear on the northeast corner of Congress and 1st.





Was that Goodyear place there until construction on One Congress Plaza began? I can't remember.

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

I found a pretty good photo thread on a General Motors forum of all places. Some of the photos have been posted here, but there were many I'd never seen before.

Great old pics, Austin Texas


There were two that I really liked and had to save to my own hard drive.

The first was the model of what Robert Mueller Municipal Airport was supposed to look like.



I don't know what the black hole in the roof was all about, and I don't think I've ever seen any subsequent photos after Mueller was built that had that "diamond" section midway through the passenger concourse.

The second one was the night photo of Congress Avenue (in color) taken around Christmas in 1960. I tried to clean that one up a little. It shows an Austin Goodyear on the northeast corner of Congress and 1st.





Was that Goodyear place there until construction on One Congress Plaza began? I can't remember.

I think the idea for the open space in the main Mueller terminal was that it would be an atrium. It probably fell by the wayside as subsequent revisions recalled what Austin is like in the summer and how you don't really want to be in un-conditioned air if you can avoid it. As for the Christmas lights, I think those are the ones the city purchased in the mid 50s; they were quite elaborate. I wonder what happened to them.

[KevinFromTexas]

Well my family, at least on that side, were transplants. My dad's side of the family is from Germany. My dad and his brothers and one sister were all born there. My cousin was the first in the family born in America. Still, he grew up in the 60s and 70s in Austin and never had a shortage of stories to tell. One of them was my cousin went to the first ever North American AC/DC concert. It was in Austin at the Armadillo World Headquarters on Barton Springs in 1977.

There's a Facebook group called South Austin Memories. They frequently have posts about Aquafest. They even have some photos of the skipper pins. I have one of them from a year that we went when I was a kid.

[cvalkan]

Other things that might have been mentioned: the Holiday House, Inner Sanctum Records, the Silver Dollar (off Burnet IIRC), You Scream Ice Cream. I think I miss AquaFest the most.

[lzppjb]

My great-great-grandfather is buried downtown in the Oakwood Annex. My granny was born in Driftwood in 1908. Her dad helped build the store there. She told stories of being in Austin in the early 30s, working as a carhop and riding on the backs of motorcycles up and down Congress with the trollies.

My grandmother on the other side was an Austin grad Class of '44. She was born on Willow. Her dad was a bit of an arborist, I guess. Many of the pecan trees in East Austin were spliced by his hand. Not sure if those trees are still alive. Her husband, my grandpa, was also born on Willow.

[KevinFromTexas]

That seems about right. I would say 1972 or 1973. You can see the Stephen F. Austin state office building. It's the large building that's partially hidden to the left of the UT Tower. That one was finished in 1973. Southwest Tower was also finished that year, (white building with black windows on left). There's also a tower crane in the upper right working on one of those UT highrises. I think it's the construction for the Jester Center since it was finished in 1973. It would have been visible just to the right of that state office building.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

That seems about right. I would say 1972 or 1973. You can see the Stephen F. Austin state office building. It's the large building that's partially hidden to the left of the UT Tower. That one was finished in 1973. Southwest Tower was also finished that year, (white building with black windows on left). There's also a tower crane in the upper right working on one of those UT highrises. I think it's the construction for the Jester Center since it was finished in 1973. It would have been visible just to the right of that state office building.

That's amazing Kevin. The city should hire you! I don't think there is another person in this city who could identify and date a photo so accurately just using their knowledge of what building is what and when it was built. I mean, the tower crane is barely a shadow in that picture, but if you know what you are looking at, there is no question that it is there. I doubt any of the top city employees or even the council members could even come close to dating a photo like that. Very impressive.

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks. I've been collecting building heights and dates for Austin for about 20 years now. I started when I was a young teenager. I knew the dates for those buildings, but I also used Google Earth to plot the sight line in the postcard to figure out which UT highrise that crane was working on. The Robert Lee Moore Hall was finished in 1974, and it's basically directly behind where that crane would be. Of course it was finished a year after the Jester Center was, so assuming it had been the Robert Lee Moore Hall, you should have been able to see the Jester Center sticking up, but since you can't, I assumed it must be the construction for the Jester Center.

I collect postcards myself and also collect old photos mostly from the internet that show the city from way back. And of course books and just about anything else that shows Austin.

I am still missing some building dates. Out of 171 highrise buildings that I have heights for now, I'm missing dates for 9 of them. 6 of those are those IBM office buildings near Burnet & Mopac. The other 3 are the John H. Winters state office building at 51st & Guadalupe, the Tarlton Law Library on the UT Campus, and the Travis County Jail. I know that the old jail building predates the taller Blackwell-Thurman building adjacent to it. Google Earth shows an image from 1995 and it's visible in it.