But once I arrived in downtown Austin, however, a very interesting thing happened - and it briefly took me away from the granite countertop sector. As I drove into the city, it seemed that one could find a range of traditional and contemporary limestone architecture on every street corner. From corporate offices to the campus of the University of Texas to the local La Quinta Inn, limestone was woven into the fabric of the town. As a self-professed “stone geek,” I was intrigued that even relatively low-budget enterprises like Taco Bell used limestone on their exterior (and I mean “real” limestone; not the fake stuff).
And in the high-end corporate sector, the offices of firms such as Dell, Intel and others also chose to clad their buildings with native limestone. Right in downtown Austin, the earthy folks at Whole Foods clad their new headquarters/flagship store in Texas limestone, and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos for the magazine (see page 178).