{"id":21608,"date":"2019-03-12T16:10:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T14:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/?p=21608"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:00:04","slug":"office-building-week-one-american-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/office-building-week-one-american-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Office Building of the Week: One American Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21668\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/One-American-Center-Austin.jpg\" alt=\"One American Center\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/One-American-Center-Austin.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/One-American-Center-Austin.jpg?resize=120,150 120w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/One-American-Center-Austin.jpg?resize=240,300 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21691\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Quick-Facts_600-Congress-Ave.png\" alt=\"One American Center\" width=\"800\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Quick-Facts_600-Congress-Ave.png 800w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Quick-Facts_600-Congress-Ave.png?resize=150,93 150w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Quick-Facts_600-Congress-Ave.png?resize=486,300 486w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Quick-Facts_600-Congress-Ave.png?resize=768,474 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/commercial-property\/us\/tx\/austin\/one-american-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One American Center<\/a> was the tallest building in Austin upon its completion in the mid-eighties and is currently the 8<sup>th<\/sup> tallest skyscraper in The Live Music Capital of the World. With its distinctive three-tier tower, it is an emblematic part of the city skyline and currently holds the title of the third-tallest office building in the Texas capital.<\/p>\n<h2>Construction and Development<\/h2>\n<p>The edifice you see today was built on the site of an old 2-level Woolworth\u2019s Department Store\u2014a landmark Art Deco-style building in its aside. Construction work of the new high-rise officially started on August 16, 1982 and the One American Center was completed just two years later.<\/p>\n<p>The area in which the development was being built was slightly altered in order to accommodate the new arrival. Street-front parking on Congress Avenue was done away with to make room for an expanded sidewalk and two rows of Texas red oak trees. One American Center was the tallest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/austin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Austin<\/a> for nearly two decades until it was surpassed by the completion of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/commercial-property\/us\/tx\/austin\/frost-bank-tower\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frost Bank Tower<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n<h2>Neighborhood<\/h2>\n<p>The development has quite an enviable location, situated at the intersection of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue. One American Center is part of Austin\u2019s booming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/austin\/downtown-austin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">financial district<\/a>, not too far away from the state&#8217;s capitol building and the federal courthouse. A large number of nice eateries, fine dining restaurants, banks, caf\u00e9s and shopping establishments are all within walking distance of the building.<\/p>\n<h2>Architecture<\/h2>\n<p>One American Center was designed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1986\/07\/05\/business\/texas-architects-hurt-by-oil.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Morris-Aubry Architects<\/a>, a Houston-based firm, and\u00a0its architectural style is classified as postmodern. The building\u2019s distinctive three-tier tower is probably one of its most eye-catching characteristics, standing out from the crowd of high-rises that surrounds it. The stepped tiers have an exterior of pre-cast limestone and a trim of granite, which further emphasizes the tower\u2019s unique shape.<\/p>\n<p>The 20,000 cubic feet of granite used in One American Center\u2019s construction are in fact two different types of material: Sunset Red from Marble Falls, TX and Charlie Brown from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ok\/?MapView=True\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oklahoma<\/a>. The granite was taken to Mexico to be cut and polished in the city of Puebla.<\/p>\n<p>The building boasts a 6-story atrium facing Congress Avenue, and its floor plates range in size from 4,100 to 36,000 square feet. Its elevators are among the fastest in the city, travelling at 1,000 feet per minute. Another interesting fact is that One American Center\u2019s ground level fa\u00e7ade features indentations to give the impression of individual and separate storefronts.<\/p>\n<p>The building is LEED-certified, and has received a handful of Energy Star Awards for its energy-efficient practices.<\/p>\n<h2>Current Use &amp; On-Site Amenities<\/h2>\n<p>The edifice offers over 500,000 square feet of Class A office space to tenants on 32 different levels. One American Center has attracted a wide variety of corporate, tech and creative companies, which enjoy the vibrant workplace culture and the convenient location of the development. The building\u2019s impressive supply of amenities should also be noted, ranging from an on-site fitness center, a full-service bank and ATM machines to a juice bar, a florist, and a Starbucks coffee shop.<\/p>\n<h2>In Popular Culture<\/h2>\n<p>The iconic building is featured in the 1996 fantasy film \u201cMichael,\u201d starring John Travolta. At one point in the movie we see a scene with Austin&#8217;s 6<sup>th<\/sup> Street and the One American Center on the right and Chicago\u2019s Willis Tower popping up on the left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One American Center was the tallest building in Austin upon its completion in the mid-eighties and is currently the 8th tallest skyscraper in The Live Music Capital of the World. With its distinctive three-tier tower, it is an emblematic part of the city skyline and currently holds the title of the third-tallest office building&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":19878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial-real-estate-news","category-office","wpautop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Office Building of the Week: One American Center - CommercialCafe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One American Center was the tallest building in Austin upon its completion in the mid-eighties and is currently the 8th tallest skyscraper...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/office-building-week-one-american-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Office Building of the Week: One American Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One American Center was the tallest building in Austin upon its completion in the mid-eighties and is currently the 8th tallest skyscraper...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/office-building-week-one-american-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CommercialCafe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-12T14:10:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-22T12:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/Austin-skyline-dusk.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrienn Takacs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrienn Takacs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/office-building-week-one-american-center\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/office-building-week-one-american-center\/\",\"name\":\"Office Building of the Week: One American Center - 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