Alum remembered as lighting designer, residential architect

Britt Parker Medford, ENDS ’80 a noted Austin area architect and lighting designer succumbed to cancer April 2018. He was 59. A native of Tyler, Texas, he graduated with honors from Texas A&M and completed his graduate studies at the University of Virginia.

After school, Medford interned under several well-known architects, including E. Davis Wilcox and Bruce Goff of Tyler, and worked for his idol and early mentor, Frank Welch of Midland, an Outstanding Alumnus of the College of Architecture.

He moved to Austin in 1983 to work for Chartier Newton, who was instrumental in Austin's iconic Loop 360 bridge design. Then, in 1988 he started his own firm, focusing on custom homes, many of which were showcased in the Austin AIA Homes Tour.

Dissatisfied with lighting options for wall sconces and chandeliers for his own projects, Medford began designing and crafting custom lighting in his garage out of copper, brass, and glass to complement his architecture. This grew to become Two Hills Studio, a custom architectural lighting and decorative metal working business.

Medford considered decorative lighting as jewelry on a building, which enhances and completes the look. His fixtures, widely specified by architects, interior designers, developers, and homeowners, adorn the inside and outside of buildings and homes all over Austin and throughout the nation. Some notable projects include custom lighting for Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, the Bullock Texas State History Museum, and one of his favorites, a custom chandelier at the Boy Scouts of America Fickett Center depicting all the icons of scouting. He was honored by the Texas Society of Architects in 2000 with the Artisan Award.