Glass shattered last night from a 45th story window on the city’s tallest building, the Austonian, and tumbled to the street below. No one was injured. Two cars were damaged.
“Something impacted a window, causing it to break up on the east side of the 45th floor,” Austin Fire Department spokesman Andre De La Reza told KUT News.
According to a statement the Austonian sent to KUT News, the window was dual pane glass, and the inner pane is still intact, leading them to believe that something struck the building from the outside.
De La Reza said the area was cordoned off because the winds were blowing strongly. This morning, they closed off part of Congress Avenue so maintenance crews could break off the remaining glass in the pane.
Update at 1:17 p.m. An Austonian spokesperson emailed us to say someone will be cleaning the ledges of a building this afternoon in a bosun's chair, one of those harnesses that allows people to hang on the exterior of the building. The window will be replaced "within the next few weeks."
KXAN reporter Reagan Hackleman took pictures of the glass, which you can find here and here and here and here.
Last year, KUT News got a tour of the Austonian and a glimpse of its views.
In an unrelated story, glass fell Monday night from the CityPlace tower in Dallas, according to Fox affiliate KDFW.
