Austin History Center

Robert Franklin Coffee is an architect and sculptor, born in 1933 in Dallas, Texas. He received a journalism degree from the University of Texas in 1955. After a short stint working in journalism, he returned to the University of Texas and completed a degree in architecture. Coffee worked for Gene Wukasch in Austin and George & Oliver in Dallas while attending architecture school. After graduation he worked for the firms of Page Southerland Page and Coates & Legge. In the mid 1960s he established his own firm with Jack Crier - the firm eventually became Coffee Crier and Schenck. Coffee has worked on projects all over the state of Texas. Notable projects in the Austin area are the Austin and Dove Springs Recreation Centers, the United Way Headquarters, the Headquarters of the Austin Housing Authority, the East Austin Multipurpose Center and the Headquarters for McKinney Falls State Park. As a sculptor, Coffee completed the Texas Sheriff’s Memorial at the Texas Sheriffs’ Association and a lion for the Kabul Zoo