When the rains came last week, there was a day when the clouds simply hovered over downtown. The clouds were so low that they seemed to hover just above all of the tallest downtown buildings. All except for one. If you were working on the top floors of the Austonian, you would have been the only people downtown actually in the clouds.

And so today the Austonian officially stopped its seemingly endless ascent. With the addition of the first of six 32-foot steel beams that will define the decorative glass top, the building has finally reached its final height of 683 feet and 56-stories. One of the amazing things about a building this tall is that redefines the view of downtown from almost any angle. The building can be seen from parts of mopac north of 183, 360 west of the hills, and from the tower of the Wildflower center in far south Austin --- places where downtown was never previously visible.

Construction on the $250 million, 188-unit luxury condo tower began two years ago and is scheduled for completion next spring.