Thompson Austin

A Glass Tower at the Corner of Sixth Street

Austin builds fast, and downtown now reads as a wall of new towers between the Capitol and the lake. Thompson took thirty-two floors of one of them, at 506 San Jacinto Boulevard, and organised it like a small city: cafe, diner and cocktail room at street level, guest floors stacked above, a cantina and a pool deck on the roof. The bedrooms are glazed floor to ceiling, so the grid, the hill country haze and the evening light do most of the decorating. The tone downstairs is Texan and social rather than hushed, which is the correct reading of this address.

Why It Works

The house earns its place on two counts. First, the food and drink are not an afterthought bolted to a lobby: four distinct rooms, each with its own hours and its own crowd, which means a guest can spend an evening in the building without it feeling like a compromise. Second, the room count is deep enough to absorb a festival week while the Upper Stories floors stay separate, with kitchens and their own concierge, for anyone staying long enough to need groceries. Pets are welcome, which in this city is not a detail.

Why This Location

San Jacinto at Fifth puts Sixth Street, the live music strip, one block north, and the Convention Center a couple of blocks east. Congress Avenue and its view up to the Capitol are two blocks west; Lady Bird Lake and the hike and bike trail are a short walk south, which is where the city runs at dawn. Rainey Street, for bars in converted bungalows, is about fifteen minutes on foot along Waller Creek. What the address imposes: this is the loud quarter of Austin on a weekend night, and a room high in the tower is the difference between hearing it and being in it.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium to Luxury

• Vibe: Vertical, social, Texan-modern, glassy

• Rooms: 229 rooms, 14 suites and 17 Upper Stories residential suites with kitchens, across thirty-two floors

• Best For: music and festival travellers, business trips that turn social, long stays that need a kitchen

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Arriba Abajo, the rooftop cantina, where the margarita and the skyline arrive at the same height

• Dining: Arriba Abajo (rooftop Mexican cantina), Fifth Street Diner (American classics), The Royale Room (cocktail lounge), The Coffee Bar, plus room service

• Amenities: rooftop pool deck with cabanas and daybeds, a fitness floor of more than six thousand square feet with Peloton bikes and classes programmed by Studio Three, meeting and banquet space, pets accepted

• Attractions: Sixth Street (one block), Congress Avenue and the Texas State Capitol (a short walk north), Austin Convention Center (two blocks), Lady Bird Lake trail (south of downtown), Rainey Street (about fifteen minutes on foot)

Rooms, Suites and the Upper Stories

The standard rooms are the honest proposition here: glass on one wall, a clean line of millwork on the other, and a view that improves with every floor. Suites add living space for entertaining, and the seventeen Upper Stories residences go further, with full kitchens and a concierge who works only for those floors. Ask which way the room faces before you commit. West gives you Congress Avenue and the sunset behind the hills; east looks over Waller Creek and the convention district, quieter but flatter. Corner units get both.

Four Rooms to Eat and Drink In

Arriba Abajo sits at the top with the pool, a cantina built for long afternoons and Mexican plates. The Royale Room is the opposite register, dark and made for cocktails before dinner. Fifth Street Diner covers the American classics and the morning after. The Coffee Bar, with its community tables, is where the building does its work between meetings. Four rooms, four hours of the day, and no reason to book a table elsewhere unless you want to.

What to Know Before You Book

Austin fills completely around its festival calendar, and downtown rates and availability move with it, so book well ahead if your dates are flexible only in name. Check-in starts in the afternoon, check-out is late morning. Children are accepted, and so are dogs. Parking downtown is valet and tight, but the airport run is short and the lake, the Capitol and the music are all walkable, which is the argument for staying inside the grid rather than out on the highway.