You are here

Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » Central Texas » Austin, Texas » Downtown Austin » Austin Convention Center

Austin Convention Center

-A A +A
1992, PageSoutherlandPage, Villalva Kotera Kolar, Ellerbe Becket, and Lawrence W. Speck Associates. 500 E. Cesar Chavez St.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )

Construction of the new convention center required the closure of several short streets in the area southeast of the business district. The six-block-long complex incorporates local limestone and is built to the property lines. While large in size, the alternating use of native stone, steel, and glass support a welcoming pedestrian streetscape and give the contemporary building a regional feel.

The Four Seasons Residences (2009) by Michael Graves and Associates at E. Cesar Chavez and Trinity streets rises above the Four Seasons Hotel (c. 1985) with views across Lady Bird Lake. A strong structural grid overlays the glass tower, ordering the changing materials and the projecting and recessed balconies, as increasing transparency and lighter tones mark the three distinct stages of the tower.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,