Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 49

7" Section Austin American-Statesman Monday, October 21, 1985 Microbusiness, D2 Bill Doyle, D3 On Excellence, D4 Kathleen Sullivan i i. -X A 3 ui vuiiicoo avenue 'mmm Staff Illustration by Mark Freistedt Artist's conception of Congress Avenue based on models and renderings of projects. View is north from the intersection of First Street toward the Capitol. it From expansive vista to granite canyon, a street forever different A Austin history breathes just around the corner 5 A mm By Michael McCullar American-Statesman Staff mm mmmmm mammm It 11111 m- Architects and developed by tin-based Rust Properties. "It set the standards that most people are accepting and moving up to." Lincoln Property itself is moving up with construction of 100 Congress, a 22-story high rise designed by Harwood K.

Smith and Partners of Dallas and now under construe-'; tion on the northwest corner of. West First and Congress. Scheduled for completion in 1986, the $65 million building will have about 430,000 square feet of space, including some 14,500" square feet of retail in a base pavilion. Like One American's front pa--vilion, the base of 301 Congress wilL be shaped and scaled to maintain; the low 19th-century cornice line' of the rich array of historic buildings along the Avenue, many of which have been meticulously re-. By Michael McCullar American-Statesman Staff Behold One American Center.

When the building was completed In 1984, Austin had never seen anything quite like it three stairstepping tiers clad in cut and precast limestone, trimmed in brown granite, and rising like some architectural apparition from a skyline once considered the quaint domain of the Texas Capitol and UT Tower. Today the 32-story high rise, situated on the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street, seems less an apparition and more an established urban landmark. It is also, for better or worse, a sign of things to come. All around it, towering cranes are now erecting the city's next generation of tall buildings, many of which are designed in One American's Postmodern likeness. When the dust clears and the last office is leased, what is downtown Austin, specifically Congress Avenue, going to look like? Will it be an architectural showcase like Houston, lauded for its bold originality, or will it continue to be, as many observers have viewed it over the years, something of an architectural backwater? "One American Center is a premier-class building," said Mike Crockett, marketing manager for Dallas-based Lincoln Property whose Austin offices are on the 21st floor of the city's new flagship high rise, designed by the Houston architecture firm Morris-Aubry stored.

rrri To fully appreciate the grandeur of One American Center and its presence on the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street and how dramatically the Avenue is being transformed it helps to remember what was there before. For Rust Properties to build One American at the heart of downtown Austin, it was necessary to demolish a humble, two-story Woolworth store built in 1942, a passing mourned mainly by the shoppers and bus riders who frequented the place. As it turned out, the World War II-vintage Wool-worth's, although considered a pretty good example of the commercial Art Deco style of the day, was poorly constructed, according to the contractor who demolished it, and its function as a lowly five and dime was not in keeping with the historical use of the site. The intersection of Congress and Sixth has traditionally been a premier location in Austin. It was the nexus of two main roads coming into town the San Antonio Highway (Congress Avenue) going north and south, and the Bastrop Highway (Pecan, later Sixth, Street) going east and west And of all four corners of the intersection, none has been traditionally more important than the northwest corner, the location of a number of legendary Austin landmarks, among them Bullock's Hotel and Cook's Corner.

The hotel at first an ad-hoc assemblage of cabins, later a stately building fronting Congress with a two-story porch was one of the most popular meeting places in the city. And Cook's Corner, a commercial building and bank designed and con- Now serving chip 'n bits It's a market still in its infancy, but when Intel Corp. tossed its hat into the 32-bit ring last week announcing its 386 microprocessor the nascent market suddenly got a lot more interesting. Intel isn't the first maker of 32-bit chips, which calculate and transmit information in 32-bit pieces and are expected to be the "brains" for the next generation of desktop computers. Although National Semiconductor and Motorola beat it to the market, some analysts are already placing their bets on Intel's chip, saying it will win the lion's share of the 32-bit market.

"This particular microprocessor works very close to the heart of IBM's office automation strategy for microcomputers," said Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies Research International, a market research company. "We expect to see IBM introduce a computer based on the Intel 386 microprocessor in early 1987." And what of National Semiconductor and Motorola? "The 386 chip steals their thunder," Bajarin said. Once IBM builds a computer around the new chip, Intel's 32-bit star will rise. By 1991, he said, Intel will capture 50 to 60 percent of the market. "All IBM has to do is develop it as a standard, and the market will move in that direction," Bajarin said.

Intel has arrived late in 32-bit market, following competitors by 1 12 to two years. But it has designed a chip that will be able to run software packages written for its other, less powerful micro-procesors, which are used in IBM's personal computers. That means the 386 will have "instant exposure" once Intel begins shipping the 386 in large quantities, Bajarin said. Sandy Gant, a market researcher with agreed that Intel's new chip will be a market heavyweight. Once reason its announcement gained attention is because IBM owns a 20 percent stake in Intel, she said.

"If IBM goes with the 386, it will be a shoe-in as a winner." Not surprisingly, Jack Browne marketing manager for Motorola's 32-bit family line the 68000 series, takes exception to analysts who have already crowned Intel the winner. "The race is not over nearly as much as the analysts think it is," Browne said. Motorola, which introduced its 32-bit 68020 chip in June 1984, began shipping it in volume last May. The company plans to ship more than 250,000 units next year, he said. Bajarin said Intel will begin volume shipments in the second quarter of 1986.

Motorola's customers have put the chip into 75 products, and Motorola has 80 percent of today's market, Browne said. "The guy that gets to the market first," he said, "has the advantage." Motorola's experience in man-facturing its 32-bit chip gives the company a competitive edge, Browne said. In the semiconductor industry, the production "learning curve" is an extremely important factor in pricing, he said. The price of Motorola's chip has already fallen, now ranging from $200 to $300. Initially, it sold for $487, he said.

(The Intel chip will sell for $300.) IBM, always circumspect on matters regarding the introduction of a new product, issued a statement conerning the 386 chip from Boca Raton, where its personal computer division is headquartered. "IBM is committed to continuing the architectural compatibility of its Personal Computer product line and to the preservation of its customers' software investment," said the statement by William Lowe, president of the entry systems division. "The Intel 30386 is a significant technical accomplishment and, while its use in an IBM PC product is not expected in the immediate future, we look forward to exploring its potential." Kathleen Sullivan writes about high technology for the American-Statesman, Historic buildings on Congress were given some measure of pro tection when the avenue's was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The city also awards historic zoning to individual buildings, the alteration or demolition of which must be approved by the Landmark Commission, Planning Commission, and the City Council. Alluding to its historic context, 100 Congress will be clad in polished Texas granite with flamed-granite accents and layered on both ends and sides.

It will be topped with a pitched roof similar to Capitol Center's, the 15-story-high rise at 10th Street and Con-, Sea Congress, D8 Staff Photo by Jay Godwin One American Center dominates the intersec-tion of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue. structed in the late 1870s by Austin master builder Abner Cook, was where O. Henry was employed as a teller until he was convicted of embezzlement. Third-generation Texan turns to real estate This vcok ii "ww iiifMai If GM sneezes When General Motors Corp. decided to cut the cost of its medical benefits, the move sent shudders through America's healthcare industry.

Wednesday It 4.. yt In Business Charles Marsh III Position: President, Marsh Box Co. Age: 45 Education: Bachelor of Arts in psychology, University of Houston, 1969. Work experience: Part-time mathematics teacher id Houston's Fourth Ward while doing odd jobs for TV channel 39 and working parttime In real estate; James Crain Co. of Houston, 1970-76 as a Realtor and later as an investor-partner; co-founded Marsh Box Co.

in late 1977. On Austin: 'I came to this town at the absolute optimum time I could have, with regards to the real estate boom and the onset of the real growth and vitality of Austin in 1977. And I was In an Ideal Industry to have benefitted from that phenomenon. A lot of things we did wouldn't work today. The market's more competitive, the conditions are far less favorable, and wouldn't have Marsh Box's growth: Estimated sales of $50 million at year-end 1983; sales of $115 million by year-end 1984; expected sales of $175 million by year-end 1985; expected sales of $250 million by year-end 1986.

Plans for Marsh Box: 'If someone can become the dominant Realtor In this market we think we're that In Business looks at the people who make up Austin's business community. By Kim Tyson American-Statesman Staff Charles Marsh III sees himself as a very fortunate guy who happened to hit Austin at the right time. Marsh, president of the Marsh Box has ridden the high wave of Austin's real estate boom as a speculator, developer, and owner of the real estate brokerage firm. Now he is using those earnings to chart a big goal: To make Marsh Box the dominant force in the Austin market within two years. Last year, Marsh bought out the interest of Eden Box, his partner since the firm was founded in late 1977.

Box, wife of University of Texas architecture dean Hal Box, is still associated with the firm, but is starting other pursuits, including building a fitness and health spa in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Marsh is the grandson of Charles Marsh, who was a partner with E.S. Fentress in the 1930s in a chain of newspapers that included the American-Statesman. Charles I was a major backer of oilman, later multimillionaire, Sid Richardson, as well as young Lyndon Johnson in his rise in politics. He was also once the prime stockholder in Capital National Bank, now Texas Commerce Bank.

(Marsh III says he has never read the Robert Caro book, Path to Power, which talks about his grandfather and LBJ). Charles II made his fortune in West Texas as an owner of a medium-sized independent oil exploration firm that hit it big in West Texas and the Alabama oil fields. Charles III, now 45, grew up in Midland, attended the University of Oklahoma for a year, then took off for six years to travel the world and take such odd jobs as exporting motorcycles, reconditioning used cars, and harvesting sugar cane on the east coast of Australia. He returned to Texas and college when he was 28 to See Marsh, D7 Down to earth From insurance to home buying, columnist Jane Bryant Quinn puts the numbers of business into human terms. Thursday Customer service Mart puts a premium or.

dealing with customers wha complain to make sure they get satisfaction and keep coming back. Friday i' Staff Photo by Mario Vlllafuerte Charles Marsh III hopes to make Marsh Box the dominant force in the Austin market. 7.