What won’t change during the massive renovation project is the exterior of the historic brick building and its Gothic stonework and green-tiled roof, nor the glamorous lobby, with its gold ceilings and inlaid medallions, ornamental brass fixtures and double doors, and gleaming marble walls.Īlso standing the test of time is the observation deck graffiti - some with pledges of affection carved into the copper edging through the years: Tony Cruz loves Rose Mary Ramirez, Oct. The building could also get a new name, Cross said. Hundreds of brass door fixtures designed for the building when it was known as the Smith-Young Tower, stored in a box in the basement, will be reinstalled. Hightower said the shop windows under the awning along South St. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportĪnother major change to the building includes opening the flood-proof walls to the River Walk and developing spaces for restaurants that Cross said he plans to have open at the same time as the apartments. The fixtures will be reinstalled on the entrance of apartment units. Developer Ed Cross holds one of the hundreds of brass door fixtures designed for the building when it was known as the Smith-Young Tower. The views of San Antonio from that level are superseded only by those from the observation deck, just below the flagpole, where city streets appear to radiate outward from the Tower Life. Cross said the 7th-floor outdoor space will have a pool and outdoor seating areas. Instead, the units will spread out like a fan to a wall of windows with panoramic views.Īn amenity floor is planned where the tower sits on top of the main structure. In the octagonal tower, where each floor differs in size, there will be no long and narrow, “shoebox” shaped, apartments like those found in most new-build residential towers. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report A light well is planned for apartment units developed in that space. An area inside the Tower Life building is seen where windows were blocked due to the adjacent parking garage. Rows of windows provide lots of natural light in each unit except in one section where a light well is planned for that purpose. The first six floors of the building where the Sears store was located have high ceilings and will be turned into urban loft apartments, Hightower said. “You get two radically different extremes of how you normally lay out apartment buildings today,” he said. In the case of the Tower Life, that challenge led to unique results, Hightower said. That meant they also had to find the most efficient way to lay out the apartments. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportĬross said the team had to find space within the structure and work around its numerous support columns, for an additional fire stair and a garbage disposal chute, and an efficient way to run the amount of plumbing needed for all the units.īut losing space to required systems means giving up rentable square footage, Cross said. The second floor interior of the Tower Life building, which will be transformed into urban loft apartments. The Zachrys took impeccable care of Tower Life up to the day their 78 years of ownership ended, according to Cross.īut with the building’s use changing from office to residential, the new owners are required to entirely upgrade the building’s systems - from plumbing and safety to accessibility - and create spaces that meet the standards and expectations of today’s renter. The building’s most recent and longest-term owner was the construction firm founder H.B. It also got air conditioning and a fire suppression system. The building later underwent modifications to house a TV station, an insurance company and the city’s transit agency. The first section of the River Walk was completed in 1941. Mary’s Street to shop or visit the store’s cafeteria, lounges and barbershop. In those days, guests of the adjacent Plaza Hotel, now Granada Homes, could enter the flagship department store through a tunnel beneath St. Above that, the tower, with its eight stone gargoyles that are each 6 feet in length, had a bank of six elevators and office space. Its earliest occupant was a Sears department store, which operated for 10 years on the first six floors, according to a National Register of Historic Places document. The Tower of the Americas is seen from the observation deck at the Tower Life building.
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