Frost Bank Tower by Duda|Paine Architects is the fifth tallest building in Austin, Texas, with 33 floors and 515 feet in height. Recertified from LEED Gold to Platinum, the over 500,000-square-foot facility reaches new milestones for sustainable office spaces. Frost Bank Tower features low-E glass that creates a distinctive profile, adding to Austin’s city skyline at a desirable address on Congress Avenue.
Frost Bank Tower is considered one of the most recognizable buildings in Austin due to its unusual shape. It rises from a limestone base into a low-E glass skin that peaks in a glass crown that looks like shards of ice at the top. According to Emporis, Frost Bank Tower is one of only two buildings in the world with a blue-colored low-E glass skin.
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The color creates a unique, almost art-deco facade that can shade against extra heat during the day and shows unique designs on the exterior. The building features a lit glass top that changes colors for special occasions and an 11-story parking garage for 1,400 vehicles at the base.
The Frost Bank Tower contains conference facilities, a building concierge, 24-hour cardkey access, gym, tenant-controlled HVAC, restaurants, a coffee shop and a dry cleaner. There are 13 passenger elevators and one freight elevator from the lobby, which continues the art-deco-like inlaid geometric floor patterns.
Floor sizes on each level vary from 18,000 square feet to 27,000 square feet. It’s an enormous building to be rated LEED Platinum or Gold. Every system, from HVAC to electricity and heat, has been meticulously designed for sustainability. First certified as LEED Gold in October 2015, Frost Bank Tower’s recertification in 2019 saw it earn 80 points toward Platinum certification.
As Duda|Paine Architects explains on its website, “Frost Bank Tower balances the iconic dynamics of the cityscape with the pedestrian experience of the streetscape. From a distance, the profile of Frost Bank Tower’s multi-layered glass crown adds a complementary yet defining landmark to Austin’s skyline.”
Images by Atelier Wong Photogaphy
