{"id":301340,"date":"2026-05-20T13:16:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/301340\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:16:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:16:45","slug":"rust-colored-stains-have-marred-texas-tallest-building-in-austin-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/301340\/","title":{"rendered":"Rust-colored stains have marred Texas’ tallest building in Austin. Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin residents are accustomed to seeing changes in the city\u2019s skyline, but the city\u2019s tallest tower<\/a> is drawing attention\u00a0for an off-color reason.<\/p>\n

Large, rust-colored stains running down the white and glass exterior of Waterline, the 74-story mixed-use tower under construction in the Rainey Street District, are drawing speculation from passersby and social media<\/a> users about what\u2019s happening to the city\u2019s new marquee structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a brand new building, the tallest in Texas, and not even open yet and this is already happening,\u201d a user on the Reddit social media site said\u00a0in a post about the stains.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nothing to worry about, according to\u00a0an executive with Lincoln Property Co., which is developing the building with Kairoi Residential. The discoloration is overflow from the building\u2019s standpipe system and expected to be cleaned soon.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stain is seen on The Waterline, a supertall skyscraper under construction in Austin on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s normal. It\u2019s basically just a bunch of dirt and grime,\u201d said Seth Johnston, executive vice president for Lincoln\u2019s Austin and San Antonio operations.<\/p>\n

A standpipe, or riser, is part of the rigid, vertical piping built into multi-story buildings as connection points for fire hoses.<\/p>\n

Johnston said the Austin Fire Department is conducting flow tests of the pipes and the discoloration is the result of grime that built up during\u00a0 of construction, which began in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stain is seen on The Waterline, a supertall skyscraper under construction in Austin on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be cleaned up pretty quick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The $520 million tower is\u00a0under construction<\/a> near Lady Bird Lake and Waller Creek. At more than 1,000 feet, it is the tallest building in Texas.<\/p>\n

Plans for the whopping project include office space, more than 350 apartments, retail and restaurant space, a 250-room hotel, indoor and outdoor amenity spaces and direct access to the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail.<\/p>\n

The building is expected to be complete this summer, though final build-out of the interior may take longer to complete.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stain is seen on The Waterline, a supertall skyscraper under construction in Austin on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin residents are accustomed to seeing changes in the city\u2019s skyline, but the city\u2019s tallest tower is drawing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,8067,134,133,7460,107811,52359],"class_list":["post-301340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-fire-department","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-residents","tag-tallest-building-in-texas","tag-tallest-tower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}