Let's go local and talk about Austin's very own Resemblance - the University of Texas' Tower and its resemblance to an owl. If one orients themselves just right to the Main Building of UT - the faces of the clocks become eyes while the corner of the observation deck suggests a beak. The resemblance is so strong that students to this day orally pass on a fictitious story of how the architect of the Main Building and Tower was a graduate of Rice University and designed it to resemble their mascot the owl, as a rival's way of poking fun. Then, in 2004, the Frost Bank Tower came along, also resembling an owl but this time the eyes are made out of the Frost logos. Here again, the resemblance so strong, only now it no longer mattered that the building wasn't on the UT campus (a key element in the drama of the tale), the story jumped over and became a legend for Frost's design but with some modifications: when he designed the building Rice and UT had a huge rivalry and he designed it this way to "humiliate" Austin and UT. I've also heard the architect was rejected from UT but accepted to Rice University, so when he was asked to design this building, he designed it to resemble an owl looking down over the UT campus. The 307-foot UT tower was designed by Paul Philippe Cret and the Frost Bank Tower was designed by Duda/Paine Architects, LLP and HKS, Inc., none of which had Rice propaganda agendas.
About the author: the power of Resemblances inspired artist Ismael Cavazos to create the Old Man in the Peanut after recognizing the heart of a peanut resembles an old man's hooded head complete with beard. He now brings you Remarkable Resemblances from around the World with the Replica Report.
