DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this one's got layers — a professor, a photographer, an architect, and a little piece of Austin that still stands today. The story of the Cranfill Apartments.
Dr. Thomas Cranfill, English professor at the University of Texas, lived from 1913 to 1995. He commissioned this three-unit apartment building as a residence and studio for his partner — photographer and author Hans Beacham, who lived from 1925 to 2004.
That right there is a story unto itself, two creative lives intertwined, and they needed a space worthy of what they were building together. So who do you call? Well, if you're lucky, you call Harwell Hamilton Harris.
Harris — born 1903, died 1990 — was no ordinary architect. He had served as Director of the University's School of Architecture from 1951 to 1955, and he had a style all his own. They called it regional modern, and when you hear what went into this building, you start to understand why that phrase means something.
Harris completed the apartments in 1960, and he came at the design with a clear philosophy. Open up the interior. Clad the outside in board-and-batten redwood siding.
Let the concrete block show — don't hide it, don't apologize for it. Bring in the natural light. Let the materials speak for themselves.
And most of all, make sure the building doesn't fight the landscape around it but reaches toward it. That's not just architecture, friend. That's a point of view.
Now, this wasn't Harris's first time working for Cranfill either. He had already designed the nearby Cranfill House, built in 1955 — five years before the apartments went up. So there was a trust there, a conversation already in progress between a man who loved language and a man who shaped space.
Two artists speaking to each other across disciplines. The Cranfill Apartments stand as a testament to that conversation — redwood and concrete and light, holding their ground in Austin all these decades on.
What the marker says
Dr. Thomas Cranfill (1913-1995), English professor at the University of Texas, commissioned this three-unit apartment building as a residence and studio for his partner, photographer and author Hans Beacham (1925-2004). Completed in 1960, Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903-1990), Director of the University’s School of Architecture from 1951-55, designed the apartments in his distinctive regional modern style. Harris combined an open interior layout with board-and-batten redwood siding and exposed concrete block, emphasizing natural light, honesty of the materials and the connection between building and landscape. Harris also designed the nearby Cranfill House, built in 1955.