Looking north on Congress Avenue, we see the Frost Bank Tower spanning 4th and 5th Streets. Way before the current building boom and the one before that, which started in 2007, the Frost Bank Tower was the original gangster skyscraper that defined modern 21st-century Austin.

Completed in 2003, it was the first new high-rise on Congress Avenue in two decades. The 515-foot building was once the tallest in Austin but has been surpassed numerous times in the subsequent building booms. As of 2025, the Frost Tower ranks number nine in Austin. Of historical note, it was the first high rise to be built in the United States after the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

I’ve commented a few times that this building could’ve been so much better if it was double its height or half its thickness—it looks too stubby. I realize that commercial viability trumps the aesthetic aspects of the structure. I love the design of the top half. It is a modern interpretation of a classic New York City skyscraper with its stepped and pointy top.

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