Westgate Tower

Duane's take

Now, I'm gonna tell you this one the way the official Texas Historical Commission marker tells it — so every word of this comes straight from the stone. Here's the story of the Westgate Tower. In 1962, there was a man named Edward Durell Stone — born 1902, died 1978, internationally acclaimed, working out of New York City — and if you know anything about architecture in the mid-twentieth century, you know that name carried weight.

Stone teamed up with a local firm by the name of Fehr and Granger, and together they sat down to design something that Austin had never seen before. The client was the Lumbermen's Investment Corporation of Austin, and what they had in mind was a tower. Not just any tower, mind you — they wanted the tallest building constructed in Austin during the entire decade of the 1960s.

Two hundred and sixty-one feet of ambition, right there on the west edge of the Texas State Capitol grounds. That's how it got its name: Westgate Tower. Named for where it stood.

Simple as that, and somehow perfect. Now, a man named Julian H. Zimmerman led the charge on the ground in Austin, workin' in coordination with Stone himself, and in 1965 — three years after those first drawings were made — Austin's very first residential high-rise opened its doors.

Twenty-six stories. Apartments, parking, a restaurant, a social club. A whole world stacked on top of itself, right there in the heart of the capital city.

The building is poured-in-place, monolithic reinforced concrete — they don't throw words like monolithic around lightly, and they shouldn't — clad in brown brick sourced from the locally-based Butler Brick Company. Full-length windows, individual balconettes tucked between brick-faced columns. And here's the part where Stone's signature really shows up: decorative masonry solar screens.

That was a distinctive characteristic of his mid-twentieth-century Modern architecture. Those screens let light come filtering into the parking garage and the top two floors, while quietly keeping the Texas sun from making life miserable and giving folks a little privacy in the bargain. Because if you know the Texas sun, you know it is not a polite guest.

The whole tower is arranged around a central core — elevators and a staircase — and every single residential unit opens up to expansive views of the Capitol grounds and the city of Austin. That wasn't an accident. That was Stone's intention.

He wanted you to look out your window and feel the weight of where you were living. Now, Stone didn't just design this building to be one building. He intended the Westgate Tower to serve as a prototype — a blueprint, a proof of concept — for other apartment and office towers across Austin.

Whether those others ever measured up is a story for another marker. But the Westgate itself? It drew in state representatives and senators, state employees, political activists and lobbyists, local business leaders.

If the Texas Capitol was where the decisions got made official, the Westgate Tower was often where those conversations got started. Mixed-use before mixed-use was a buzzword. Combining residential and commercial space in a way that significantly contributed to the urban planning and development of downtown Austin.

The Texas Historical Commission made it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2012 — fifty years after that first set of plans. Two hundred and sixty-one feet tall, standing right next to the Capitol. Edward Durell Stone drew the lines, Julian Zimmerman built the thing, and Austin has never quite been the same skyline since.

What the marker says

In 1962, the internationally-acclaimed architect Edward Durell Stone (1902-1978) of New York City and local firm Fehr & Granger designed the Westgate Tower, named for its location adjoining the west edge of the Texas State Capitol grounds. Designed for the Lumbermen's Investment Corporation of Austin, the Westgate Tower was the tallest building constructed in Austin during the 1960s at 261 feet in height. Under the leadership of Julian H. Zimmerman and in coordination with Stone, Austin's first residential high-rise opened in 1965 with apartments, parking, restaurant and social club. The mixed-use building is of poured-in-place, monolithic reinforced concrete clad in brown brick sourced from the locally-based Butler Brick Company, with full-length windows and individual balconettes between brick-faced columns. Decorative masonry solar screens, a distinctive characteristic of Stone's mid- twentieth-century Modern architecture, allow light to enter the parking garage and top two floors while offering privacy and shade from the Texas sun. The 26-story tower is arranged around a central core of elevators and a staircase, and all residential units open to expansive views of the Capitol grounds and city of Austin, a key element of Stone's design. Intended to serve as a prototype for other apartments and office Towers in Austin, the Westgate Tower has historically been home to many State Representatives and Senators, state employees, political activists and lobbyists, and local business leaders. Combining residential and commercial space, the Westgate Tower significantly contributed to the urban planning and development of downtown Austin. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2012