The Norwood Tower (previously known as the Capital National Bank Building) is a historic commercial building in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Built in 1929, the tower was named a

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the U.S. state of Texas. RTHL is a legal designation and the highest honor the sta ...

in 2006 and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2011. At the time of construction, it was the city's tallest commercial structure and Austin's first fully

air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

office building, and the adjoining parking structure was the city's first self-parking ramped auto garage. The tower remains Austin's only

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

high-rise building A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

History

In the early 1920s,

financier Ollie Osborn Norwood decided to build a large new office tower to provide professional space for the growing city. At the time, the only tall commercial buildings in Austin were the

Scarbrough Building The Scarbrough Building is a historic commercial building in downtown Austin, Texas. Located on the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street, the Chicago-style building was originally home to the flagship E.M. Scarbrough & Sons department stor ...

and the

Littlefield Building Littlefield may refer to: Jurisdictions in the United States * Littlefield, Arizona * Littlefield, Texas * Littlefield Township, Michigan Other *Littlefield (surname) * Institutions: ** In Arizona (in or near town of Littlefield): Littlefield Un ...

; Norwood planned a cutting-edge professional complex, with central

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

in every office (an Austin first) and an integrated

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

. In 1925 he acquired a downtown parcel, where he first built a parking structure which he called the "Motoramp Garage" at a cost of $250,000 (). The garage was the city's first ramped multi-story garage, which permitted self-parking by drivers. When the garage was completed in January 1928, Norwood demolished a pre-existing residence on the lot and began building an office tower on the site, at a cost of $750,000 (). Construction was completed in the summer of 1929, after which the Norwood Building was occupied by medical, legal and financial offices, as well as retailers and government agencies. At the time, it was the city's tallest commercial building, and the third tallest structure, after the

Texas State Capitol The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 18 ...

and the Stephen F. Austin Hotel.

Capital National Bank Building

Beginning in January 1934, Capital National Bank of Austin occupied the ground floor of the Norwood Building. In 1944 the bank purchased the building and renamed it the "Capital National Bank Building." The bank modified the adjoining garage in 1951 to allow ground-level commercial banking facilities to be extended into the garage building. Over the decades, CNB occupied progressively more and more of the building, until the bank eventually moved its headquarters to a larger building in 1981.

Norwood Tower

The building came under new ownership after CNB relocated in 1981. The new owners changed the building's name to the "Norwood Tower" and undertook major renovations between 1982 and 1983 at a cost of $5 million (). During this time the tower's exterior and lobby were repaired and restored, and the building was brought into compliance with modern

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permission ...

s. The tower was named a

in 2006, and on February 7, 2011 it was added to the

Clarence Odie Williams

From the building's completion in 1929 until 1964, the Norwood Tower's maintenance engineer was Clarence Odie Williams, an African-American Austinite. Williams had a private office in the tower, with its own restroom, which he made available for public use. During the Segregation Era before the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

, Williams's office was the only public restroom in downtown Austin open to "colored" guests, and it was regularly visited by African Americans who had business downtown.

Architecture

The Norwood Tower is a sixteen-story steel-frame building

clad Cladding is an outer layer of material covering another. It may refer to the following: *Cladding (boiler), the layer of insulation and outer wrapping around a boiler shell *Cladding (construction), materials applied to the exterior of buildings ...

with

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable molding (process), mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples i ...

panels. Its design exemplifies the

(or "Commercial Gothic") architectural style common among 1920s-era Texas

s, with its vertical lines, Gothic

tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

d roof line and

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s; the tower remains the only high-rise building in Austin built in this style. The building was designed by local architects Bertram Giesecke and August Watkins "Watt" Harris. The

general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

for its construction was Frank Barron. The first thirteen floors of the tower hold commercial and office space. The fourteenth and fifteenth levels form a two-story

penthouse apartment A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distingui ...

with

rooftop garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...

s on the corners, while the sixteenth floor is a mechanical level, housing the building's elevator machinery.

Exterior

The tower rises vertically from a square base, maintaining its square cross section for the bottom thirteen stories. Above the thirteenth level the corners are set back, giving the penthouse on the fourteenth and fifteenth stories a cruciform floor plan. Above the fifteenth level the sides are also stepped back, giving the sixteenth level a narrower rectangular floor plan. The adjoining garage covers the bottom five stories of the tower on its north and west sides. The main entry is in the south facade, which features seven

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

ed openings at ground level, with entrance doors behind the central three and glazing over the outer four. The seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

are separated by square

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, which become

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s running vertically up the face of the tower above the first story. Between the pilasters, narrow vertical ribs divide each bay into thirds, with three narrow vertical windows in each bay at each level. The

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s between the first and second levels are decorated with blind tracery depicting organic patterns in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, and those between the second and third levels are wrapped in a band of open-tracery

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

s, topped by a row of twenty-seven small gargoyles at the level of the third-story

window sill A windowsill (also written window sill or window-sill, and less frequently in British English, cill) is the horizontal structure or surface at the bottom of a window. Window sills serve to structurally support and hold the window in place. The ...

s. The spandrels between the twelfth and thirteenth levels are engraved with images of the Scales of Justice and the

Caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; la, cādūceus, from grc-gre, κηρύκειον "herald's wand, or staff") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was also ...

, representing the legal and medical professionals who were the tower's first tenants. At the top of the central bay, immediately below the roof line, is a large clock (no longer operating) with its face designed in the style of a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

, surrounded by panels of blind tracery. At the various roof lines creating by the multiple setbacks, the pilasters and ribs terminate in elaborate decorative

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s and gargoyles that combine to give the tower a pinnacled and complex silhouette. The other elevations of the building are similar to the south facade, though without the arched entry, lower gargoyles and clock face.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks City of Austin Historic Landmarks Commercial buildings completed in 1929 Skyscraper office buildings in Austin, Texas Gothic Revival architecture in Texas 1929 establishments in Texas