Westgate Tower
1122 Colorado St, Austin, TXThe Westgate Tower—a 26-story mixed-use building containing commercial space, apartments, a parking garage, and originally a restaurant and social club—is named for its location adjoining the west edge of the Capitol grounds in downtown Austin, Texas. At 261 feet in height, the Westgate Tower was the tallest building constructed in Austin during the 1960s, although it deferred in height to the Capitol (311 feet) and the tower of the Main Building of the University of Texas at Austin (307 feet). The Westgate is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development for its association with a wave of high-rise residential construction in Texas cities during the period 1962-1966. Additionally, it is nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture for its association with the architects Edward Durell Stone of New York and Fehr & Granger of Austin; its masonry solar screens embody the distinctive characteristics of Stone's mid-twentieth-century modern architecture. As the model for mixed-use, residential high-rise development in downtown Austin, the Westgate Tower meets Criteria Consideration G for properties that have achieved historical significance within the past fifty years.
Bibliography
Barkley, Mary Starr. History of Travis County & Austin 1839-1899. Stack Co, Austin, Texas, 1967.
Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County. Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.