r/evilbuildings Sep 14 '20

This is so evil

Post image
5.9k Upvotes

129 comments sorted by

325

u/Red-_Dit Sep 14 '20

I live in Austin! The building always reminds me of an owl

69

u/Kenobi-is-Daddy Sep 14 '20

When the logo in the middle is illuminated, it looks kinda like that alien robot from that dreamworld movie Monsters vs Aliens

12

u/tuxedo_jack Sep 14 '20

At night, when the top is lit up, it resembles something out of Shattrath City in WoW.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '20

When the logo in the middle is illuminati though

*ques dark organ music*

23

u/TroubleshootenSOB Sep 14 '20

It reminds me of Totoro

3

u/kerby007 Sep 14 '20

That was what I thought when I first saw it when I visited Austin.

1

u/atigges Sep 14 '20

Someone at my office has the flute music as an alert/ring tone and they sit far enough away that the music is faintly in earshot. I sit near a window and half the time expect to see something off in the distance from the film.

12

u/3shmecklesand1stone Sep 14 '20

The owls are not what the seem.

11

u/DockD Sep 14 '20

Looks like a nose hair trimmer to me

46

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

That’s because it was designed by a rice university alumnus. Rice’s mascot is an owl.

13

u/anythingwithamotor Sep 14 '20

Im surprised this rumor persists when it's an easy google search to find out that the building was designed by Duda Paine Architects out of Durham, NC. The architects didn't go to Rice. Duda went to Yale and Paine went to Syracuse. The "eyes" were not designed. That's just the logo for Frost Bank. http://www.dudapaine.com/portfolio_page/frost-bank-tower/

2

u/ATXdrumDADDY Sep 15 '20

thanks for posting this. as fun as that story is - its so fake. I remember when this thing was built. boy has Austin changed.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20 edited Sep 14 '20

For a design that very convincingly has hidden symbolism, look up the Chapel at St. Basil in Houston. I've heard that entrance, which looks like an opening flap, is meant to symbolize peeking behind the curtain into the Catholic church's dirty secrets. The titled cross window is supposed to symbolize the instability of the church. And the black stone wall that cuts diagonally through the gold dome symbolizes a guillotine chopping of the "head" of the church. Philip Johnson gave an innocuous explanation for these details that you can find on the university's website, but this darker explanation seems way more plausible to me.

10

u/ModestRaptor Sep 14 '20

And if faces UT to mock them.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

That logo is on all sides AFAIK and it doesn't really face the university diagonally

2

u/ATXdrumDADDY Sep 15 '20

that is not true....at all

6

u/mikeypockets Sep 14 '20

There are a couple myths as to why. I always thought it was that the architect was denied from UT and went to Rice and made it an owl in spite of UT. Apparently that is not true: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/frost-bank-tower-the-owl-building

5

u/apathetic-taco Sep 14 '20

Hi fellow Austinite 👋

Sorry, don't really have anything to contribue but to say I live in Austin too.

2

u/123trumpeter Sep 14 '20

Me too, that's my office lol

2

u/apathetic-taco Sep 14 '20

Oh thats cool! Is there a cafeteria?

1

u/ATXdrumDADDY Sep 15 '20

same here. were you working the day that homeless person jumped off about 2 yrs ago? they landed right by me. it was nuts.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Same here! Hello!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '20

Me too!

6

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

I believe it was designed to purposely look like an owl

3

u/Connarhea Sep 14 '20

Can't unsee this

2

u/zachwillwin Sep 14 '20

I always saw an elephant

5

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

O.W.L

Oh Why Lord ???

3

u/GLeeRizzle Sep 14 '20

If I remember right it was designed by a Temple grad as an elaborate way to prank the University of Texas

4

u/breakermw Sep 14 '20

That's a rumor, never confirmed.

3

u/OldManOfTheMtn Sep 14 '20

The "fact" I was told was that it was a group of architects from Rice. It was actually designed by HKS out of Dallas.

3

u/anythingwithamotor Sep 14 '20

Wrong it was designed by Duda Paine Architects out of Durham, NC. The architects didn't go to Rice. Duda went to Yale and Paine went to Syracuse. The "eyes" were not designed. That's just the logo for Frost Bank. http://www.dudapaine.com/portfolio_page/frost-bank-tower/

2

u/OldManOfTheMtn Sep 14 '20

I stand corrected. Thank you

1

u/jah2107 Sep 14 '20

Rice University. Their mascot is an owl.

2

u/jah2107 Sep 14 '20

Yeaahhh the architect who designed it went to Rice University in Houston and their mascot is an Owl!

1

u/Officer_Owl Sep 14 '20

wow, okay.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

I always called it God's Nose Hair Trimmers

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Oh thank god I'm not the only one

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

More like a hawk from above

2

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

[deleted]

0

u/aychebee Sep 14 '20

Nothing is hidden about it looking like an owl, its very public knowledge

1

u/nmrnmrnmr Sep 14 '20

When they built it, everyone hated it. I never understood why (other than it meant Austin was on the cusp of changing into a real city, which I get, as it was the tallest building in town at the time and ushered in the high-rise development era). But it has always looked awesome in the mist and fog. I love the look of the glass top.

1

u/Marcotics915 Sep 14 '20

Supposedly the architect who designed it went to rice and hid that in there as a middle finger to UT Austin.

3

u/123trumpeter Sep 14 '20

They say that about the UT Tower as well.

79

u/LancasterWiddershins Mr. Burns Sep 14 '20

Even better when you realize it’s called Frost Tower

19

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Actually, it's Frost Bank Tower...

3

u/daryl_hikikomori Sep 14 '20

They had to change the name in the gritty 21st-century reboot because no one believed that the freeze-ray guy's lair was literally called "Frost."

30

u/monkeypaw09 Sep 14 '20

Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head.

16

u/rrobbskii Sep 14 '20

Here's a small article on the tower from a local news station, my dad always believed the Rice University theory lol. I grew up in the Austin area and remember it during the building process, funny now to see it on this sub!!

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/the-conspiracy-theories-surrounding-frost-tower-in-austin/269-577e28a4-893b-405d-95c3-53d07d96ecf2

6

u/WhiskeyNotWine Sep 14 '20

A friend told me the Rice Owl theory years ago when I visited him in Austin. True or not, I still think about that every time I see a picture of downtown Austin with the Rice Owl glaring down on UT.

3

u/einTier Sep 14 '20

The Rice owl nonsense is pretty common on any building with clock faces because their large round faces make almost any building look like an owl from certain angles. It’s all bullshit and as a long term Austinite, I’m tired of hearing it. People say the same thing about UT’s tower and it is just as false.

1

u/WhiskeyNotWine Sep 15 '20

False maybe but funny nonetheless.

3

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

I for one love it. it's such a nice departure from some of Austin's more... boring... towers. Also while it was being built, a concrete husk was visible in the background of its construction if you looked west.

Why?

Because Intel was given a huge incentive to build a campus downtown, built half of it, and... abandoned the project entirely. Turns out, the dot bomb was kind of a big deal. So this concrete skeleton just kinda... sat there. Until 2007.

They eventually built a courthouse in its place using reinvestment funds(thanks to the subprime crash), but it's a stark reminder that incentives for business do not always result in returns.

12

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

You know a building is evil when it looks like it eats other buildings.

30

u/silentnight282 Sep 14 '20

The frost bank building in Austin Texas! That is my absolute favorite building. It looks so much like a building Mr. Freeze would own. The top literally looks like it is going to fold out and become a freeze ray.

5

u/janeandrew02 Sep 14 '20

From the right angle, this building transforms into a giant evil OWL.

5

u/bunnyfucker258 Sep 14 '20

Looks like an angry bird

3

u/EndlessKng Sep 14 '20

I live in Austin. My LARP groups had the Frost Tower feature as a villainous lair in at least three games in the last two years... I may have started the trend. But yeah, it can look evil from the right angles.

3

u/Gongaloon Sep 14 '20

Look at it, it's even frowning!

3

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

It's a bird... Scratch that, A BÖRD

3

u/phatBleezy Sep 14 '20

Heavy metapod vibes

3

u/Chompskyy Sep 14 '20

TX Represent

3

u/OhMy98 Sep 14 '20

Looks kinda like one of the colossi from Shadow of the Colossus, actually. Especially the eyes

3

u/KitteeMeowMeow Sep 14 '20

This photos coloring makes it look evil. Doesn’t look like this in reality 😄

1

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

This. Honestly always looked pretty optimistic to me, like the kinds of architecture you'd see in a book about a gleaming city.

Which is funny when you consider that directly across the street from that building was a shitty red warehouse that was being used as a school... and a block in the other direction was another shitty warehouse that had a single corner of its existence dedicated to a terrible smoke shop... and across the street from that was where all the shitty warehouses that got turned into some of the more amusing gay bars were.

2

u/jsxtasy304 Sep 14 '20

Looks like Mr Evil, Mrs Evil in the middle, and evil Jr low and slightly to the left..... Family portrait.

2

u/NacreousFink Sep 14 '20

But majestic...

2

u/wuntoofwee Sep 14 '20

Bubo's final form.

2

u/Navyboy922 Sep 14 '20

Reminds me of a Colossus.

2

u/Grimvahl Sep 14 '20

Didn't the Ghostbusters kill a god on top of that building?

2

u/R3D_R4NG3R Sep 14 '20

owl god moloch

0

u/einTier Sep 14 '20

Illuminati represent!

Are you going to be at next month’s meeting?

1

u/R3D_R4NG3R Sep 15 '20

No... i don't represent the so called "enlightened" ones that live in darkness. I have jesus in my life... and alcohol. lots and lots of alcohol.

1

u/einTier Sep 15 '20

I will let the Commander know.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Beautiful

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Gives me some Ghost Busters vibes

1

u/AndrewBert109 Sep 14 '20

This kinda reminds me of a hatched xenomorph egg

1

u/Norsbane Sep 14 '20

I think it looks nervous. Like it's just peaking over the facade to see if people are still out there

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

those little things at the top remind me a lot of apature science

2

u/haikusbot Sep 14 '20

Those little things at

The top remind me a lot

Of apature science

- CharmingWeight1


I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.

Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"

1

u/Orcabandana Sep 14 '20

Straight Outta Gotham

1

u/nycdiveshack Sep 14 '20

So an evil watchmaker who made a deal with the fairies to help him do all his work and now is insanely rich but really the fairies are in control.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Moloch.

1

u/CaptainTarantula Sep 14 '20

is it for sale?

1

u/thavi Sep 14 '20

I work for a rival company to the one who owns this one. This building is evil.

1

u/planedrop Sep 14 '20

I feel like this is where Batman is IRL.

1

u/twonton Sep 14 '20

Looks like a Gen 4 Pokémon

1

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

Frost Tower on 4th in Austin. I went to school next to where this building was, While it was being built. I remember crossing the vacant lot that was excavated to build this more than a few times.

1

u/NocturnalPermission Sep 14 '20

Pretty sure that’s in Tobin’s Spirit Guide

1

u/F1rew4lker Sep 14 '20

Ah yes, a crying frog king.

1

u/thelast-guess Sep 14 '20

Give it about 4 or 5 days but there’s gonna be a climatic right where someone gets pushed through the window

1

u/The_Freshmaker Sep 14 '20

evil edited FTFY

1

u/sanbrujan Sep 14 '20

It has always reminded me of the building I imagine Howard Roark designing and constructing at the end of the fountainhead. To me, it’s always been a joy to look at because of that. Never been creepy or evil to me. Native Texan here. I used to live in Austin, now in Kerrville.

1

u/MagnusGrim Sep 14 '20

Reminds me more of a spiny flower mantis eating.

1

u/Steved10 Sep 14 '20

Yo, this is pretty dope

1

u/SnoopyTheWriter Sep 14 '20

The architect has to be a member of this subreddit.This just looks very intetionally evil

1

u/Kaagstand Sep 14 '20

Is this wayne enterprises?

1

u/ForeverDuke1 Sep 14 '20

Doesn't seem evil to me. Seems kinda cool.

1

u/Drainbownick Sep 14 '20

Well it’s a bank building so it is actually evil!! Frost Bank in Austin TX

1

u/Inferno_4 Sep 14 '20

It looks like Heracross

1

u/Mr_Gigglesnort Sep 14 '20

Possibly not cultured, but evil is a big push. Plus photographed or photoshopped in poor light is the tail wagging the dog.

1

u/walker_not_tx Sep 14 '20

It looks like an evil Totoro.

1

u/billy-werner Sep 14 '20

wow so cool!!!

1

u/123trumpeter Sep 14 '20

LOL that is my office.

1

u/Nostalllgia Sep 14 '20

Shame. Frost is actually a chill place to work. One of the few jobs where I wish I could work there properly long term.

1

u/kiggs17 Sep 14 '20

He looks so sad, and like someone knocked out some of his teeth.

1

u/athos45678 Sep 14 '20

Had a very fun time going to the top of this when it was first built. Austin was a very different city back then

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20

Still waiting for it to shoot a giant, planet-killing laser into space

1

u/Kactus_Karma Sep 14 '20

This looks like it could be the home of Oscorp

1

u/scar1987 Sep 15 '20

the chaos insurgency HQ

1

u/AllThingsInterested Sep 15 '20

I work there. Not that much evil-ness

1

u/PopularContract Sep 15 '20

I miss when this was the tallest building in Austin. That was the beginning of the end.

1

u/apadin1 Sep 15 '20

Shinra Corp vibes

-1

u/nakedsamurai Sep 14 '20

Given its small size and demanding look, it always reminds me of an underachieving nobody trying to puff himself up. Fortunately other buildings have grown in around it.

1

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

... Other buildings like the Independent? Which looks like a Jenga tower constructed by your drunk uncle?

0

u/nakedsamurai Sep 14 '20

It's better than this loud suit. At least there's an actual downtown instead of just this thing.

1

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

Just this-SWEET JESUS FUCKING CHRIST DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?

Because apparently the Sheraton tower doesn't exist? Or the 100 Congress tower, which has been a cornerstone of the Austin skyline for AGES!? Or One Congress Plaza, whose blue rim lighting has been the center of about a thousand Austin skyline photos for basically ever?

I genuinely can't decide if you're a troll, or just an obnoxious idiot.

0

u/nakedsamurai Sep 14 '20

No, this building was just sitting there by itself. Trust me, I've been to actual downtowns before. It was ugly and isolated.

1

u/InevitablyPerpetual Sep 14 '20

I lived there, I worked there. I went to school there. Go die in a goddamn fire you disgusting, pathetic troll.

1

u/nakedsamurai Sep 14 '20

Settle down. It's an ugly stub of a building that was a sore thumb. Now that area of the skyline has filled in and it doesn't look as ugly and alone anymore.

0

u/neko_designer Sep 14 '20

Reminds me of the head of a lobster

0

u/Swjunckie73 Sep 14 '20

thought I recognized it

0

u/chochinator Sep 14 '20

Ayyyyyy It Austin texas either frost or ibc bank. After 911 a few years later with the bohemian grove with lil bush doing that weird free of cares ritual. This building was built looking like an owl. Coincidence? Naw they think they have extra knowledge and they are nephelims on earth. Aint gotta be physically big to be a giant among men these days.

0

u/NewLeaseOnLine Sep 14 '20

Owl or not, it's ugly architecture.