For the second week in a row, the risk of falling glass from the W Hotel has canceled ACL Live’s Wine Down Wednesday. The event was to feature a performance by musician Dan Dyer and a tasting by the Second Street District’s Malaga Tapas & Bar.
Glass panels fell from the W Hotel last week for the third time in a little over two weeks, prompting the developer, Stratus Properties, to close the W Hotel temporarily.
All the glass panels have been removed from W Hotel balconies and have been replaced with temporary wood paneling, according to the US Glass News Network, an industry trade publication.
The Austin American-Statesman reported over the weekend that design and material choices may be behind the falling panels.
And although the $300 million structure was built in compliance with the 2003 international building code in effect at the time, the latest version of the code would appear to prohibit the kind of glass that was used in the W railings, which left the relatively fragile edges of the panes exposed.
