Stories

Topping Out in Downtown Austin

Courtesy of Bernadette Donato
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
Courtesy of Bernadette Donato
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)
(Credit Bernadette Donato)

The team on the new Colorado Tower office building in downtown Austin celebrated a major milestone this month. Roughly 330 construction workers, developers, architects and engineers turned out for a traditional topping-out ceremony, watching from the 20th floor as the final 30-foot steel beam was hoisted to the top of the new tower. In keeping with the topping out tradition, an evergreen tree, an American flag and a Texas state flag were perched on top of the beam, which was decorated with colorful autographs of employees and construction crew.

DPR thanked the subcontractors and construction crew for their long hours of hard work and dedication. Jason Frost, vice president of developer Cousins Properties, Inc., also spoke. He thanked DPR for keeping the project on target for completion in December 2014.

This 30-story, 775,000-sq.-ft. Class-A office building and parking garage will include 10,000-sq.-ft. of ground floor retail, 372,000-sq.-ft. of rentable office space and a 12-level, 880-space parking structure. The building is designed to an Austin Energy Green Building Two Star rating.