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“Gothic
crazy” Watt Harris is credited with the building’s
Gothic Revival design which romanticizes the medieval past
with pointed arches, finials and adornments that feature gargoyles,
a magnificent Gothic clock tower façade, decorative
motifs representing the medical and legal professions, and
stepped back top floors that give the building its picturesque,
castle-like silhouette. The elevator shaft terminates in a
decorative tower on the 16th floor. The exterior of the steel-framed
building was yet another Norwood innovation; its shell
was built entirely of pre-cast concrete that bears a close
resemblance to Austin native limestone.
Inside, Italian travertine marble covered the lobby walls
from ceiling to terrazzo-tiled floors. Ladies operated three
modern elevators until the mid-sixties. The original, heavily
tooled brass elevator doors still grace the main lobby with
their Art Deco medallions.
Windows in the 1929 building had a hook on the outside so
window washers could suspend themselves. No one in Austin
would go up, so Norwood contracted with a Dallas company.
The window-washer eventually left the Dallas company and stayed
at the Norwood Building permanently.
