One Eleven Congress, formerly One Congress Plaza, is a skyscraper 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 district ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, the state capital of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Standing tall and containing 30 floors, the building is the 17th tallest in Austin.

List of tallest buildings in Austin File:AustinSkylinefromButlerPark-Jun2009.JPG, 350px, alt=A view of the Austin skyline as taken from Butler Park, facing a north northeast direction, Skyline of Austin from Butler Park, June 2009 (Use cursor to identify buildings) poly 57 1069 ...

The building contains a sunken plaza, which include

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

, a food hall, water features, and park benches, as well as the location for the

AMOA Ammonia monooxygenase (, ''AMO'') is an enzyme, which catalyses the following chemical reaction : ammonia + AH2 + O2 \rightleftharpoons NH2OH + A + H2O Ammonia monooxygenase contains copper and possibly nonheme iron. AMO is the first enzyme in ...

Art Show. Built in 1987, the building was one of the skyscrapers built during the 1970s and 1980s boom Austin had at the time, and still is one of Austin's most famous buildings. Norwest Plaza, Franklin Federal Plaza, and One Congress Plaza have been former names for One Eleven Congress. One Eleven Congress has many setbacks from

Congress Avenue Congress Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Austin, Texas. The street is a six-lane, tree lined avenue that cuts through the middle of the city from far south Austin and goes over Lady Bird Lake leading to the Texas State Capitol in the heart of ...

to meet the requirements of a 1931 height restriction. The building is owned by

Cousins Properties Cousins Properties Incorporated is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in office buildings in Atlanta, Charlotte, Austin, Phoenix, Tampa, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The company has developed notable propertie ...

of Atlanta, Georgia. One Eleven Congress has of space and is one of Austin's waterfront skyscrapers.

History

One Eleven Congress was opened in 1987, developed by

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

-based Vantage Bros. in a joint venture with Austin-based Carpenter Development and the Prospect Company of Dallas. Originally, a 15-story, 20,000 square foot hotel tower was to be built on the northwest side of the building, connected via a glass atrium. The building would have stepped down towards Congress Avenue creating stairs to the first setback on One Eleven Congress; this project was put on hold and eventually canceled. In 2017, the building was rebranded to One Eleven Congress, and the lobby and outdoor plaza were renovated. The lower level of the lobby was transformed into a food hall called "Fareground", which features a number of Austin-based food vendors, along with a bar. The outdoor plaza was revamped to include

astroturf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has ...

grassy hills, new seating, and native landscaping. The transformation also included a new

water feature In landscape architecture and garden design, a water feature is one or more items from a range of fountains, jeux d'eau, pools, ponds, rills, artificial waterfalls, and streams. Before the 18th century they were usually powered by gravity, tho ...

consisting of a 12 sculptural stainless steel poles, ranging from 20 feet to 30 feet tall. The poles emit a mist that is harvested from the

condensation Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapo ...

collected from the building's air conditioning system.

Architecture

One Eleven Congress was designed by the architect

Victor A. Lundy Victor Alfred Lundy (born February 1, 1923) is an American architect. An exemplar of modernist architecture, he was one of the leaders of the Sarasota School of Architecture. His Warm Mineral Springs Motel, outside Warm Mineral Springs, Flor ...

and

HKS, Inc. HKS, Inc. is an American international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas (USA). History The firm was founded in 1939 by Harwood K. Smith. In 2002, HKS expanded its international presence by opening HKS Arquitectos in Mex ...

along with an interior designed by Susman Tisdale Gayle Architects. The building's facade is clad in red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

and bronze-tinted glass. Designed in a step-like pyramid shape, the tops of each "step" are lined in blue neon lighting, making the building a distinctive addition to the nighttime skyline. The lobby's ceiling is adorned in patterned Burmese

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

. The building's parking garage, located across Brazos Street, is connected to the building via a tunnel and includes a Baylor Scott & White clinic on the ground floor. On the north side of the building is a

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

bank branch with drive-thru lanes.

Gallery

File:Lobby1-OneCongressPlaza.JPG, The lobby in 2010 prior to renovation File:One Congress Plaza Austin Lobby.jpg, The lobby in 2018 File:Fareground at One Congress Plaza.jpg, Fareground food hall on the lobby's first floor in 2018 File:One Congress Plaza Austin.jpg, The sunken plaza facing North

References

External links

One Eleven Congress
- Thomas Properties Group {{Downtown Austin Skyscraper office buildings in Austin, Texas Office buildings completed in 1987 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings 1987 establishments in Texas