Regarding Paul R. Williams (2016-2020)
Regarding Paul R. Williams highlights the work of the first certified Black architect west of the Mississippi River. Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980) was a Los Angeles native who built a wildly successful career as an architect decades before the Civil Rights Movement. He designed municipal buildings and private homes. He designed banks, churches, hospitals, and university halls. He designed public housing projects and mansions for celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. If you have ever spent an afternoon driving around Los Angeles, you have seen a Paul Williams building or two.
In 1923, Williams became the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects. In 2017, nearly 40 years after his death, he became the first Black recipient of the AIA Gold Medal.
My book, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View was published by Angel City Press on September 15, 2020. You can order the book here.
In 2021, I was awarded a Peter E. Pool Fellowship by the Nevada Museum of Art to photograph Williams’ extant projects in the state of Nevada. For information and research related to that work, and to Williams’ structures in Nevada, please visit alegacyrevered.org.
