{"id":482407,"date":"2026-10-31T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482407\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:00:22","slug":"kpf-completes-1025-foot-waterline-texas-tallest-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482407\/","title":{"rendered":"KPF Completes 1,025-Foot Waterline, Texas\u2019 Tallest Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

KPF has completed Waterline, a 1,025-foot mixed-use tower on the edge of Lady Bird Lake in Austin. At 74 stories, it is now the tallest building <\/a>in Texas, surpassing Houston\u2019s long-standing record holder. The project combines a hotel, offices, retail, and luxury residences in a single vertical form that slopes gently away from the water as it rises.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

\t\tAerial perspective of Waterline\u2019s mixed-use podium and tower integrated with the creek landscape. Image courtesy: Photo by Nick Blok<\/p>\n

Developed by Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential, Waterline sits along Waller Creek and extends the Waterloo Greenway into a new ground-floor promenade. The base of the building is designed as an open framework so that the surrounding neighborhood can connect to the greenway and the lake beyond. James von Klemperer, KPF<\/a> President and Design Principal, described the intention as creating \u201can urban activator\u201d rather than a sealed corporate tower.<\/p>\n

A Mixed-Use Vertical Neighborhood<\/p>\n

\"Curving\"Curving<\/p>\n

\t\tThe curved podium of Waterline connects to the taller residential shaft above. Image courtesy: Photo by Nick Blok<\/p>\n

The program is stacked with clear intention. Hotel and office floors occupy the lower and middle sections, while luxury residences rise higher. Double-height exterior floorplates supported by large columns mark the transitions between uses from the outside. The podium curves to follow the western bend of Waller Creek and houses hotel and parking components. Deep balconies broken into playful partitions animate the base.<\/p>\n

The project includes Austin\u2019s first 1 Hotel, premium office space, ground-floor retail and residential units with access to sky gardens and a crown-level amenity floor. Waterline is pursuing LEED<\/a> Gold and WELL V2 certifications.<\/p>\n

Originally, the site was tied to a WeWork-led competition that selected a design by BIG. After WeWork\u2019s difficulties, the development team changed, and KPF took over, refining the mixed-use concept while keeping the essential relationship to the water and the Rainey District.<\/p>\n

Design Logic and Parametric Thinking<\/p>\n

\"Austin\"Austin<\/p>\n

\t\tWaterline stands as the tallest building on the Austin skyline overlooking Lady Bird Lake. Image courtesy: Photo by Nick Blok<\/a><\/p>\n

The tower\u2019s form was shaped by several simultaneous constraints: the need to avoid overwhelming the low-lying historic Rainey District, the desire to open views toward the lake, and the practical requirements of stacking hotel, office, and residential floorplates. Parametric modeling allowed the team to test the sloping silhouette against solar exposure, wind loads, and structural efficiency. The resulting profile has been compared to a cowboy boot by the designers, a regional reference that is more about attitude than literal form.<\/p>\n

From a computational design<\/a> perspective, the project is notable for the way the base is treated as a porous public armature rather than a solid plinth. The decision to break the lower levels into an open framework required careful coordination between structural engineering, landscape design, and the pedestrian flows of the greenway. The fa\u00e7ade patterning further expresses the different programs inside, creating a collage of textures that reads as a vertical neighborhood rather than a single corporate surface.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s Changing Skyline<\/p>\n

\"Landscaped\"Landscaped<\/p>\n

\t\tPublic greenway along Waller Creek integrated with the base of the Waterline development. Image courtesy: Photo by Nick Blok<\/p>\n

Waterline arrives at a moment when Austin\u2019s skyline is rapidly densifying. Its completion two months ahead of schedule underlines the efficiency of the construction team led by DPR Construction. With a height advantage of roughly 23 feet over Houston\u2019s JPMorgan Chase Tower, the building shifts the state\u2019s tallest title firmly to the capital.<\/p>\n

\"Elevated\"Elevated<\/p>\n

\t\tPedestrian boardwalk along Waller Creek passing beneath the elevated base of KPF\u2019s Waterline tower. Image courtesy: Photo by Nick Blok<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s real contribution, however, may lie less in the record and more in the way it attempts to weave public space into the base of a supertall. Whether the ground-level promenade succeeds in becoming a genuine mixing chamber will depend on how the retail, hotel, and residential communities use the shared floors. For now, Waterline stands as both a new landmark and a test of whether Texas\u2019s tallest building can also function as an urban connector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KPF has completed Waterline, a 1,025-foot mixed-use tower on the edge of Lady Bird Lake in Austin. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-482407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482407","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=482407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}