UT Austin Tower
— the limestone shaft that turns orange after a win.
Not only on a wall.
UT Austin Tower, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“The Main Building tower rises 307 feet above the south mall of the University of Texas campus, a Paul Cret design finished in 1937. Its limestone face holds a 56-bell carillon and a four-faced clock. On nights the Longhorns win, the whole shaft is washed in burnt orange; for graduation it lights from base to crown. Most days it just stands there over the trees. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
The UT Tower is the central shaft of the Main Building at the University of Texas at Austin. It stands 307 feet from grade and rises 27 floors above the south mall of the Forty Acres campus. Paul Philippe Cret, the Philadelphia architect who also designed the Folger Shakespeare Library, drew the building; construction finished in 1937. The tower houses the main university library reading rooms below and the Kniker Carillon of 56 bells in the belfry.
The tower lighting is the most legible nighttime signal in central Austin. White is the default. Burnt orange floods the shaft and the crown after a Longhorn athletic victory, and a full orange wash with the number 1 in the windows marks a national championship. Graduation nights illuminate the entire tower in orange. The current LED system replaced incandescent floods in 2014 and can render specific colours for memorials and university observances.
The tower stands at the centre of the UT Austin campus, just north of the South Mall and the Littlefield Fountain. Public observation deck tours run on a limited schedule through the Texas Union and require advance reservations and a small fee. The base of the tower and the surrounding mall are open to walk freely. The closest parking sits along Guadalupe Street west of campus; the Capitol grounds are a ten-minute walk south.
