In the early 1920s, Austin, Texas financier Ollie Osborn Norwood decided to build a large new office tower to provide professional space for the growing city.

[4] When the garage was completed in January 1928, Norwood demolished a pre-existing residence on the lot and began building an office tower on the site, at a cost of $750,000 (equivalent to $13,300,000 in 2023).

Construction was completed in the summer of 1929, after which the Norwood Building was occupied by medical, legal and financial offices, as well as retailers and government agencies.

Above the thirteenth level the corners are set back, giving the penthouse on the fourteenth and fifteenth stories a cruciform floor plan.

[3] The main entry is in the south facade, which features seven arched openings at ground level, with entrance doors behind the central three and glazing over the outer four.

[3][8] The spandrels between the twelfth and thirteenth levels are engraved with images of the Scales of Justice and the Caduceus, representing the legal and medical professionals who were the tower's first tenants.

[3] At the top of the central bay, immediately below the roof line, is a large clock (no longer operating) with its face designed in the style of a rose window, surrounded by panels of blind tracery.

At the various roof lines creating by the multiple setbacks, the pilasters and ribs terminate in elaborate decorative finials and gargoyles that combine to give the tower a pinnacled and complex silhouette.