The Austonian

A slender round-ended glass residential tower, Texas's tallest residential building when completed.

It is also the third tallest building in Texas outside the big cities of Houston and Dallas, and the second tallest all-residential building in North America west of the Mississippi River. Because the whole tower is made up of homes, not offices, it is a high-rise neighbourhood in the sky. It is a slim glass tower, and its outside was finished only about two and a half years after work began.

Built in record time

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on August 31, 2007. On June 4, 2009, the concrete for the 47th floor was poured, which made the Austonian taller than Frost Bank Tower and the second tallest building in Austin. Less than a month later, on July 1, 2009, it passed 360 Condominiums to become the tallest of all. The outside of the building was finished in 2010, almost 2.5 years after digging began.

Moving in, and a green rating

Before anyone lived there, the tower opened for a weekend on May 15-16, 2010, as the Women's Symphony League Designer Showhouse, so the public could see inside. Residents began moving in during June 2010. In November 2010 the building earned a four-star rating from Austin Energy Green Building, and it was the only residential high-rise in downtown Austin with that rating.

The balcony repairs

In 2015 pieces of concrete fell from some balconies. Checks showed that the balconies had been built wrongly: the steel bars inside were too close to the outer edge of the concrete slab, so water could reach them and make them rust and expand, which cracked the concrete. The repairs were expected to cost over 13 million dollars and were finished in 2019.

On the globe

The model shows the slender glass tower with its round ends.