Cranfill Apartments

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.

Cranfill Apartments is a historical marker in Austin, Travis County, dedicated in 2015. It is one of 336 historical markers documented in Travis County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 641 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 30.2852, -97.7516 near Austin. The nearest cataloged historic site is Cranfill, Thomas, House (historic place), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Matsen House, Neill-Cochran House, and Texas Federation of Women's Clubs Headquarters, The.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5507018279. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.