San Jacinto Center, Office building in Downtown Austin, United States
San Jacinto Center is a three-building development in Downtown Austin overlooking Lady Bird Lake: a 21-story office tower, a 10-story Four Seasons Hotel and the 32-story Four Seasons Residences condominium tower. The postmodern office tower and hotel are clad in Texas creme limestone and Llano rose granite, and street-level space holds restaurants and shops.
The office tower and hotel opened on January 14, 1987, with a ribbon cutting attended by Austin mayor Frank C. Cooksey and Four Seasons founder Isadore Sharp. A twin office tower was planned but cancelled during the early 1990s downturn; a 1996 attempt to build it to the same specifications failed. The 166-unit Four Seasons Residences, designed by Michael Graves, opened in 2010.
The land beneath San Jacinto Center was not part of Edwin Waller's 1839 original plan for Austin, appearing only in the 1853 city expansion.
The complex faces Lady Bird Lake at the south end of downtown, with San Jacinto Boulevard running along its western side. Restaurants and street-level shops occupy the base of the towers, so the sidewalks stay active through the day. Visitors arriving by car can use parking in the complex or on surrounding city streets.
The site of the never-built eastern tower was offered to a Houston firm in 1996, which planned "Two San Jacinto Center" to the exact specifications of the existing tower; the deal fell through. A residential tower was proposed there again in 2000, then shelved, before the Four Seasons Residences rose on the plot in 2007–2010.
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