A view of the crane raised over the Symphony Square site, photobombed by the Alexan Waterloo tower. Photo by James Rambin
Years after our earliest news of the project and mere months after the first look at what we can confidently call downtown Austin’s bluest new building, the development at Symphony Square formerly also known as Symphony Square but now calling at least its residential tower side the Waller is officially under construction at the southeast corner of East 12th and Red River Streets.
A current view of the Symphony Square site, with the Alexan Waterloo tower in the background. Photo by James Rambin
This view of the completed buildings from the same side leaves out the Alexan tower, but it’s there. Image: R2L Architects / Greystar
To review, this two-building complex will transform a land assembly previously home to the Austin Symphony Orchestra offices at 1117 Red River Street, and a Velocity Credit Union and its garage facing Sabine Street at 610 East 11th Street, with both buildings now demolished leaving behind a roughly 1.7-acre tract.
The project, by national multifamily developers Greystar, contains a 32-story mixed-use residential tower alongside a connected seven-level office building, providing a grand total of 388 apartment units, 5,000 square feet of retail, and an unknown quantity of office space, though we know it includes a new office (and street-level box office) for the Austin Symphony Orchestra that previously occupied the site. In addition to its designers at R2L Architects, the project will feature interior design from acclaimed locals Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, along with landscape architecture from TBG Partners.
A rendering of the completed project next to a current view of its construction site from similar perspectives at East 12th and Red River Streets. In the rendering on the left, we’re looking at the corner of the project’s seven-floor office building, with the 32-story residential tower in the background. Image: R2L Architects / Greystar / Photo by James Rambin
Even with the appearance of a crane last week, the project has technically been under construction for nearly a month now, with excavation and other site prep taking place here after the demolition of the old Austin Symphony office building atop the 1117 Red River Street property back in April — but with a tower crane now raised over the site, there’s now a visible reminder all across town that the Waller’s on its way, along with whatever name they end up using for the office half. How about “The Creek?”
Image: R2L Architects / Greystar
Image: R2L Architects / Greystar
The development impact of the pandemic makes this milestone more significant — there’s plenty of tower cranes visible on the skyline right now at projects like 6 X Guadalupe and Block 185, but these projects broke ground prior to the cancellation of SXSW 2020 in early March that to us marks the unofficial kickoff of the pandemic’s effect on our local economy. With only the Hanover Brazos Street and Vesper condo tower projects on the board next to the Waller as the first towers to break ground after that, the crane over Symphony Square is one of the first added to the skyline in over a year.
Image: R2L Architects / Greystar
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