Robert T. Renfro collection

Robert Terry Renfro was born in Jacksonville, Texas June 30, 1931 to Joseph Terry Renfro and Lala Pauline Nicholson Renfro. During his youth, Renfro's parents ran the Greyhound bus station and coffee shop in Hillsboro, Texas and moved to Austin in 1944 where both worked for the Internal Revenue Service. Renfro attended Austin High School from 1945-1948 graduating in June of 1948. After high school, he began working on an undergraduate degree in Plan II at University of Texas at Austin. His college education was interrupted by military service in the Air Force from 1951-1954, but Renfro continued his education graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration from University of Texas (1956), as well as a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute (1958).

After graduation, Robert Renfro was employed as an industrial designer at General Electric Company, Syracuse, New York from 1958-1961, and General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Michigan from 1961-1964. His projects included work on the "Futurama II," the General Motors exhibition at the 1964-1965 World's Fair in New York.

Renfro continued his education at Yale University from 1964-1968, graduating magna cum laude with a master of architecture. As a graduate student in the School of Architecture, Renfro was awarded the very prestigious William Wirt Winchester Traveling Fellowship that allowed him to travel to Europe in 1969. Renfro studied with many notable faculty at Yale--Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, James Sterling, Warren Cox, Charles Brewer, Bruce Adams, John Fowler, Harold Roth, and Willi Holzbauer. He also worked as a draftsman for Victor Lundy in New York from 1964-1966.

Upon completion of his gradaute studies, Renfro worked with Charles Moore and Associates (New Haven, Connecticut) from 1967 to 1971. Renfro served as production manager for a time, overseeing the work of the drawing room, comprised of some 20 architects and intern architects. A significant portion of his involvement was with low-income housing.

From 1971 to 1973 Renfro returned to General Electric Company as chief architect for the company's Industrialized Housing Department. Several thousand housing units were produced in GE's facility in Philadelphia, shipped to various sites in the northeast, and assembled into larger housing complexes. This was part of "Operation Breakthrough," the federal government's program to alleviate the housing shortage for low and moderate-income people.

From 1973-1978 Renfro was staff architect and project manager for Venturi and Rauch in Philadelphia. He was project manager for some of the firm's most significant and distinguished work of the era, including the Brandt-Johnson House, Vail, Colorado (1976); the Penn State Faculty Club, State College, Pennsylvania (1975-1976); Basco Showroom, Wilmington, Delaware (1976-1977); Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, Connecticut (1976); and the Dixwell Fire Station, New Haven, Connecticut (1973-1974). He also served as a team member and designer on one of the most acclaimed projects of the decade--Franklin Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1974-1976) -- as well as one of the most controversial -- the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio (1974). Most of these buildings have been extensively published in international architectural publications, monographs of the work of Venturi and Rauch, and books on architectural history and theory.

In 1978 Robert Renfro arrived at the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin with a full background of experience from which to teach. He had a distinguished career as an associate in internationally renowned architectural firms, experience as a awards juror (Texas Society of Architectural Designers, 1980), a visiting juror (Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania, Rice University), and a studio design critic (Philadelphia College of Art, 1973-1974). Renfro was an important member of the faculty for almost 20 years, retiring in 1997. He taught design and visual communications at all levels from first year undergraduate through fifth year and graduate. With Lance Tatum he restructured first year design and visual communications into a more coherent curriculum. During the many semesters of teaching the required Working Drawings course, he was particularly successful in bridging the gap between academic and real world architectural practice. In addition to teaching, he served as chair of both the Graduate Admissions committee and the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. He also designed and installed work for many student exhibitions.

In 1979 Renfro joined Sinclair Black's architectural firm as project manager primarily working on single-family houses. In 1982 Renfro and Robert Steinbomer opened their own firm Renfro and Steinbomer, Architects; and in 1985 merged with the firm of Walker Doty Freeman to become RioGroup, Architects and Planners. Their work was multi-disciplinary, consisting of single and multi-family residential, educational, institutional, historic preservation, national register nominations, master planning, adaptive reuse, healthcare and testing facilities. Renfro has lectured on his work with Renfro and Steinbomer and RioGroup at schools of architecture at the University of Houston and Texas Tech University. Renfro has also worked as associate architect for two notable, but unbuilt projects for Austin, Texas -- a new building for Laguna Gloria Art Museum, designed in 1983 by Venturi, Rauch and Scott-Brown, and a new church facility for Unity Church in 1990 with Charles Moore.

Robert Renfro was a strong supporter for the Arts in Texas and Mexico and has contributed his time and services to Austin Public Places, Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin Child Guidance Center, Laguna Gloria Art Museum and Earthwatch. He also designed studios and art school spaces for Austin artists. During the 1977 and 1979 season, Renfro spent a number of months with Penn/Yale Expedition in Abydos, Egypt recording with drawings Middle Kingdom sites. Robert Renfro passed away in September 2025.