Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[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

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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]

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

[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...

[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.