1 Hotel Austin Opens in Waterline, the Tallest Tower in Texas

Austin’s hotel scene just got its biggest opening of the year. 1 Hotel Austin has opened its doors inside the Waterline tower at 96 Red River Street — the 74-story skyscraper that stands as the tallest building in Texas — marking the sustainability-focused brand’s first property in the state.

The building

The hotel occupies the first 16 floors of Waterline, a 74-story mixed-use tower on the edge of downtown Austin near Lady Bird Lake. 1 Hotels has built its identity around biophilic design and low-impact luxury — reclaimed timber, living greenery, filtered water stations instead of plastic bottles — and the Austin property leans fully into that ethos while chasing LEED Gold certification.

The room count: 252 rooms and 60 suites. Rates start at $489 a night, which plants it firmly in the city’s upper-upscale tier — competing with the Four Seasons Austin, the LINE, and the new wave of luxury flags that have followed the tech money into town.

The food angle — and it’s a strong one

What makes this opening land for us is the dining program, led by James Beard-nominated chef Johnny Curiel. Three distinct venues:

• Alteño (lobby level) — fire-cooked, Jalisco-influenced Mexican. Live-fire cooking is the backbone, with the menu built around regional Mexican technique rather than the Tex-Mex shorthand Austin visitors expect.
• Neighbors Café & Wine Bar (street level) — the all-day anchor, built for the neighborhood as much as the hotel.
• Watr (rooftop) — Japanese-inspired cooking with a pool deck overlooking Lady Bird Lake. Rooftop + skyline + lake view is the postcard shot, and it will be one of the most booked tables in the city within a month.

Add the Bamford Wellness Spa, a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, and more than 10,000 square feet of event space, and you have a genuine flagship, not a soft launch.

Why it matters

Texas hasn’t seen a hotel opening at this scale in years. The eco-luxury positioning is a bet that Austin’s traveler — younger, design-literate, willing to pay for sustainability credentials — wants something the legacy luxury flags don’t offer. And with Curiel’s name on the dining, the hotel has a credible claim on the city’s food conversation from day one, not just the hotel one.

The question now is whether Alteño can hold its own against Austin’s entrenched Mexican-dining heavyweights. Fire-cooked Jalisco cuisine in a hotel lobby is a statement. We’ll be watching the first reviews.

The details

• Address: 96 Red River Street, Austin, TX (Waterline tower, floors 1–16)
• Rooms: 252 rooms, 60 suites — from $489/night
• Dining: Alteño (lobby), Neighbors Café & Wine Bar (street level), Watr (rooftop)
• Wellness: Bamford Wellness Spa, 2,000-sq-ft fitness center
• Events: 10,000+ sq ft of meeting and event space
• Sustainability: LEED Gold certification in pursuit