Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Greenway

2012-2021 | Austin TX

Client Waterloo Greenway Conservancy
Architect Thomas Phifer and Partners
Landscape Architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Structural Engineer Guy Nordenson and Associates
Awards 2024 AIANY Design Awards; 2022 Urban Land Insitute Austin Impact Awards; 2022 Austin Green Award

The Moody Amphitheater is an outdoor music and performing arts venue located in a transformed park in Austin. It serves a dual function as a recreational space and a ticketed concert venue. Carefully integrated with the park landscape, the amphitheater's focal point is a 20,000sf steel canopy composed of alternating layers of stacked I-beams, arranged in a denser pattern over the stage and feathering out at the edges. The canopy provides shelter to a cast-in-place concrete stage and support facility which houses concession, back-of-house and VIP areas.

The canopy’s structural scheme satisfies the high stage loading requirements without reducing its sculptural quality. Fabricated steel trusses are carefully concealed within the “cloud” of over 2,000 individual steel and aluminum members, all of which are supported on slender rectangular steel columns. The exposed curved concrete walls of the support facility follow the site geometry and topography. The framed concrete roof structure has been designed to carry the high loading of the canopy and green roof above, while also incorporating mechanical systems and maximizing floor-to-ceiling height.