HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – The Waterline, a 74-story tower at 98 Red River Street in downtown Austin, has wrapped up construction, securing its title as the tallest building in Texas.
DPR Construction finished construction of the 2.7 million-SF mixed-use tower, which rises 1,025 feet high. Construction wrapped up two months ahead of schedule in July after 48 months, according to DPR Construction.
JPMorgan Chase Tower in downtown Houston previously held the height record at 1,002 feet tall. Designed by I.M. Pei & Partners and developed by Houston-based Hines, the building sits on a full city block bounded by Travis, Milam, Texas and Capitol.
Originally known as Texas Commerce Tower, JPMorgan Chase Tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi when completed in 1982. It was surpassed by the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles in 1989.
While The Waterline is 23 feet taller, it has one less floor than the 75-story JPMorgan Chase Tower. It is situated near Lady Bird Lake and The Confluence, Waterway Greenway’s newly opened green space along Waller Creek.
Developed by Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. and San Antonio-based Kairoi Residential, The Waterline combines residential, hotel, office, retail, and parking. KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates) was the design architect and HKS was the architect of record. The project team included Brockette Davis Drake as structural engineer and Alvine & Associates as MEPF engineer.
About 6,800 workers were on the project, with 1,000 workers on-site at peak. The building took more than 4.5 million worker hours to complete, engaged 150 trade partners, and used 150,000 cubic yards of concrete.
“Waterline pushed every assumption about scale, complexity and coordination,” said DPR Project Executive Brett Bickford. “This was a massive undertaking, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without our talented and resilient team of skilled craft professionals and trade partners.”
Waterline contains 352 apartment units on the top 33 floors, 252 hotel rooms on 13 floors, 703,000 square feet of office space on 24 floors, and 24,000 SF of dining and retail space. The building is served by 30 elevators. 1 Hotel Austin is part of Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Hotels.
By comparison, JPMorgan Chase Tower contains 1.7 million square feet of office space. The five-sided building at 600 Travis Street was renovated a few years ago with a modernized exterior plaza and a new entry, designed by the HOK architecture firm. The plaza transformation features an urban garden with increased green space and renewed connections between the outdoors and the building.
The reimagined lobby features a new glass pyramid entry, inspired by the Louvre Museum in Paris – a nod to the tower’s original architect I.M. Pei. The focal point of the plaza is a 55-foot sculpture entitled “Personage and Birds,” the largest Joan Miró sculpture ever commissioned.
Sept. 2, 2026, Realty News Report Copyright 2026
Feature photo: The Waterline tower in Austin in June 2026. Ralph Bivins photo, Realty News Report Copyright 2026
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File: Austin Claims Tallest Tower in Texas with The Waterline Completion