A Midcentury Masterpiece Apartment in Austin Asks $770K

ByMyProperty Life

Unit No. 3 in the Harwell Harris–designed Cranfill Apartments still shines from a mid-2000s restoration by Alterstudio and Mell Lawrence Architects.

The star of each unit is the double-height living room, featuring a dramatic wall of windows framed by exposed masonry block walls. Shown here, Unit No 3. was restored several years ago by Ernesto Cragnolino of Alterstudio and Krista Whitson of Mel Lawrence Architects, who used the apartment as their personal residence.

The landmarked Cranfill Apartments in Austin, Texas, are considered some of the best work of modernist architect Harwell Hamilton Harris. Built in the late 1950s, the two-story triplex is organized around a majestic live oak, with loft-like living spaces and dramatic walls of windows. Unit No. 3, the largest of the three, was recently listed for sale—offering an interior that was lovingly restored by its former architect-owners.

A massive oak tree is the focal point of the communal entry courtyard. The apartments were originally designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris for Thomas Cranfill, an English professor at The University of Texas at Austin courtyard.
The star of each unit is the double-height living room, featuring a dramatic wall of windows framed by exposed masonry block walls. Shown here, Unit No 3. was restored several years ago by Ernesto Cragnolino of Alterstudio and Krista Whitson of Mel Lawrence Architects, who used the apartment as their personal residence.

The star of each unit is the double-height living room, featuring a dramatic wall of windows framed by exposed masonry block walls. Shown here, Unit No 3. was restored several years ago by Ernesto Cragnolino of Alterstudio and Krista Whitson of Mel Lawrence Architects, who used the apartment as their personal residence.

Read another article:Design Trends for Creating a Vacation Vibe at Home

Photo courtesy of The Value of Architecture

Ernesto Cragnolino, a partner at the local firm Alterstudio, and his wife, architect Krista Whitson of Mell Lawrence Architects, purchased the building in 2004. Saving the interior from unsympathetic developers, the couple spearheaded the restoration of each unit, calling the one currently for sale their home for nearly 10 years. The duo also led efforts to have the building designated as national, state, and local historic landmarks in 2013.

The windows create a connection with nature uncommon in the middle of Austin. Biographer Lisa Germany described the apartments this way: “Hidden behind a conventional house on a remote street, the concrete block apartments held out Harris’s favorite surprise: a rich and private exposure to nature. Quiet and elegantly functional, they are among his best work.” 

Read another article:Hot Trends: 20 Best Farmhouse Style Kitchens in White and Wood

Photo courtesy of The Value of Architecture

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Midcentury Masterpiece Apartment in Austin Asks $770K
Related stories:

  • Singer Nate Ruess and Fashion Designer Charlotte Ronson List Their Swoon-Worthy NYC Pad for $3.85M
  • A Victorian Button Factory Is Reimagined as a Trio of Timber-Clad Lofts
  • Wanna Feel Like It’s 1952 All the Time? Consider Moving Into This Midcentury Time Capsule

Similar Posts

  • How to Use Beige in Your Home: Color it Without Boredom

    We are all attracted by bright characters in life. So is the case with colors. Think of a colorful extravaganza and it is reds, blues and yellows that come to mind first. Then you would want to think about neutrals and it is white that leads the pack. In the last decade or so, gray […]

    You’re reading How to Use Beige in Your Home: Color it Without Boredom, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

  • VITR

    This renovation project originates from the intervention of a pre-existent building located in the western area of Mexico City; reshaping it into a studio-house project, with clear conditions and an eye set into the pre-existing circumstances. Our design solution takes on a residential structure from the 20th century and recycles it into a project that integrates itself with its immediate natural environment, shattering the hegemony of the high walls behind which the neighboring houses hide, in order to establish a dialogue that transcends the physical limitations of the project. The variations in the depths of different planes, offer the environment a living façade, where the interior activities are guessed from the visual filters that concede intimacy to the interior spaces. The interior-exterior duality brakes its context’s routine, offering a canvas of textures where the concrete and granite give away to the mildness of the metal and the lightness of plastic fabrics. To the exterior, the housing peeks out without invading; whilst opening in the interior, subtlety exposing itself, balancing the volumes that are inserted in the site. An interplay of planes occurs inside allowing the versatility of spaces by the movement of long-distance sliding screens and wainscots formed by timber that contrast in warmth and complexity with the sobriety of the stone coatings and apparent concrete of the enclosures. A new stairway, based on steel strips, reactivates the space where the old one stood, which gave an opportunity to re-signify the ambiance of the circulations as an experience of sculptural character. The front yard of the house marks the limits of the construction and together with the water mirrors and vegetation orient the route beneath a suspended long cover. The architectural program revolves around the home in the ground floor, leaving the studio in a privileged condition towards the garden. The living spaces in the first level have terraces and views to the exterior between and through a green façade woven of plastic cables (recovering the Acapulco chair technique) that sieve and melt together the thick vegetation of the existing trees. The terraces and windows allows an optimal ventilation, illumination and contextualization between the outside and inside. In the top level, the project offers a view above itself and the wooden horizon from a roof garden that elevates to a higher plane the user’s introspection, belonging and pertinence of itself.