Archinect - News

Preserving the legacy of William Sidney Pittman, the 'first Black architect of Texas'

2024-02-28T12:23:00-05:00

Many of his designs sit within historic Black neighborhoods with African American historical and cultural institutions. At the Glen Oaks Cemetery in South Dallas, Pittman’s grave marker reminds visitors why his buildings are significant points of interest—after all, he was the “first Black architect of Texas.”

The building legacy of William Sidney Pittman, who arrived in Dallas from Washington, D.C., right before World War I, stands at only seven surviving structures. UT Austin School of Architecture assistant professor Tara A. Dudley says: “His arrival provided African Americans in Texas access to a professional architect within the race — as opposed to relying on white architects as most did — and who, as a Black man, understood the needs and requirements of the African American community.”

Pittman, who was also a tremendously incisive polemic writer and early inspiration for Paul Revere Williams, died in March of 1958 with a portfolio of fifteen completed buildings in the state. Dudley and others are now ardently at work preserving his legacy there and in D.C. (where his 1912 Anthony Bowen YMCA design still stands). As she tells Texas Highways, “[His] work needs to be preserved for future generations as a testament to his significance in the profession of architecture in the U.S. in th...

Paul Revere Williams-designed Blind Children's Center is getting remodeled for a new century of service in Los Angeles

2024-02-06T15:02:00-05:00

A renovation of the historic Paul Revere Williams-designed Blind Children’s Center (BCC) is underway in Los Angeles. The 80-year-old structure that preceded Williams’s seminal St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and other hospital designs in Southern California by twenty years is now being remodeled and modernized to match the expanded needs of the BCC community for a new century.

Williams had been living in his now landmarked first residence in Jefferson Park at the time of his commissioning for the project. His design gave the nonprofit its first permanent home during a period of rampant discrimination, thus serving as a built testament to inclusivity.

The facility in July 2022. Image courtesy of the Blind Children's Center (BCC)

Now, with support from the Ahmanson, W. M. Keck and Rose Hills Foundations, the BCC’s b...

NBBJ and ESI Design's newly renovated Nickerson Gardens Playground in Watts opens

2023-08-21T17:31:00-04:00

NBBJ shares details of its Nickerson Gardens Playground renovation project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles as part of a grand opening held on August 16th at the site, which forms the center of what is the largest American public housing development west of the Mississippi River.

The project is part of a larger $1 billion redevelopment of the Nickerson Gardens public housing tract that was first designed by Paul Revere Williams in 1955. Along with the 17,656-square-foot renovation, the new life breathed into the site will also include a fitness center, new slides, a carousel, and other brightly-colored children’s play equipment from Kompan.

Project image render courtesy NBBJ.

Completed project build. Image courtesy NBBJ and photography by Ty Cole.

NBBJ designed the project pro bono alongside its East Coast experience design studio ESI Design and with the incorporation of a community feedback process that was led by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). Red...

New $3.1 million Conserving Black Modernism grant program announced by the Getty Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation

2022-09-19T14:37:00-04:00

The Getty Foundation together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced the commitment of $3.1 million in the form of institutional grants to individuals and organizations that are working to preserve the legacy of historic modern architecture designed by Black architects nationwide.

Under the title Conserving Black Modernism, the two-year grant program, part of a larger $80 million effort overseen by the Action Fund, will support the documentation of 16 overlooked sites across the country while providing useful preservation training and storytelling resources to their future stewards.

The Getty says they are remiss at not including any works by one of America’s many underappreciated Black designers in its otherwise successful Keeping It Modern initiative and will look to address this absence with a new program that helps enshrine their contributions to what became the most defining architectural movement of the ...

On the mystery and magic appeal of LA's iconic visual language

2022-05-19T16:51:00-04:00

The apartment signs of L.A. announce location through flair, decadence, strangeness, absurdity, signification. When you see an otherwise unremarkable name affixed to a building in your neighborhood, you know — probably to the exact number of paces or miles, if you counted — how much further your intended destination is. That’s the thing about L.A. apartment signs — they point you toward where you need to be: home.

The LA Times has a really cool new series I am personally obsessed with wherein the “architecture of everyday life” is explored in and around the city. In this iteration, the Times’ style editor Ian Blair waxed poetic about LA’s midcentury typographical elements, best embodied on the facade of Paul Revere Williams’ iconic Beverly Hills Hotel, that are now synonymous with the visual imagination of Southern California feted by David Hockney and so many others.

Image courtesy Joe Wolf via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Blair spoke to the alien nature of the language contained in apartment typeface, commenting on their need to communicate intimations of luxury and class in a way in which words alone become a most effective means of conveying the interiority of space (no matter how illusory).

“Apartment signs affect us because of the amount of effort put into the premise: Please stop, look, come inside, see if you desire to belong here. There’s innuendo baked into the concept; the main selling poi...

Paul R. Williams' first LA home finally gains historic monument status

2022-02-17T14:31:00-05:00

Encouraging news for preservationists and Paul Revere Williams fans as local news outlets are reporting that the architect's first Los Angeles home, bought under the auspices of segregation, has now officially been named a Historic-Cultural Monument by the city's Cultural Heritage Commission.

The Jefferson Park home had been listed in early September for $1.6 million, prompting several local groups to petition commissioners for the designation which now gives the body the formal ability to delay any future demolition efforts for at least a year.

Williams bought the home in 1921 and used it as his principal residence until he moved to Lafayette Park in 1952. His move-in coincided with the opening of his Hollywood Masonic Temple. Commissioner Gail Kennard said the home‘s significance had more to do with the housing covenants that essentially forced the then 27-year-old architect into the neighborhood where he resided over a prolific output that yielded some of Los Angeles' most iconic...

New map highlights architectural contributions of LA’s Black community

2022-02-03T17:34:00-05:00

The “Black History Is LA History” map includes the Calvary Baptist Church of Pacoima, which was founded in 1955 by civil rights activists Rev. Hillery T. and Rosa L. Broadus, who moved from Arkansas to the San Fernando Valley. The two were involved in the local fair housing movement and helped organize the NAACP’s San Fernando Valley chapter.

The map, launched by Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin, highlights key infrastructure like the Paul Revere Williams-designed Theme Building at LAX as well as cultural landmarks like Watts Towers Arts Center and the restored Crenshaw Wall.

The focus on sites that are publicly-owned and designated by Los Angeles as Historic-Cultural Monuments means that the list is not entirely exhaustive, according to the Controller’s office. Notably missing are some key flashpoints in the racist history of development schemes within the city such as the disputed Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach. Other absences include almost all of the myriad Williams buildings that have managed to avoid demolition, Norma Merrick Sklarek’s contribution to the beautiful blue Pacific Design Center building in West Hollywood, and several contemporary designs like BASE Architecture’s new Dollarhide Community Center in Crenshaw.

An early Paul R. Williams house is on the market as conservationists push for monument status

2021-09-06T10:00:00-04:00

A home belonging to one of Los Angeles’ most storied architects is now one step closer to being saved following a unanimous vote by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

The Jefferson Park home was Paul Revere Williams’ principal residence for nearly 30 years and has been listed on the market for $1.6 million. The Los Angeles Conservancy submitted an application to the Commission wherein it cited the historic value of the home, which Williams inhabited during his rise to prominence in the city’s busy interwar period. The site “illustrates a part of Paul Revere Williams' life and story that is rarely told or fully understood,” according to a Los Angeles NBC affiliate.

Many of Williams’ houses have been mistakenly demolished owing to the fact that many of his business records, which were kept in a bank vault in nearby South Central Los Angeles, were destroyed when the branch was burned to the ground as part of 1992’s LA Riots.

Related on Archinect: 2017 AIA Gold Medal posthu...

43 illustrated Paul R. Williams-designed homes commissioned to honor the architect's legacy

2020-12-14T13:00:00-05:00

In a celebration of Paul Revere Williams' architectural career, HomeAdvisor commissioned artist Ibrahim Rayintakath to illustrate 43 of the architect's most notable California homes. The illustrations display a wide range of color schemes coupled with a surreal and matted aesthetic. Check out a few below.

View all 43 illustrations here.

Paul Revere Williams archive acquired by USC School of Architecture and Getty Research Institute

2020-06-30T10:38:00-04:00

The architectural archives of prolific 20th century architect Paul Revere Williams, long thought to have been lost to fire during the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising, have been jointly acquired by the University of Southern California School of Architecture and the Getty Research Institute (GRI).

Rather than being lost, however, according to an announcement published by the Getty Research Institute, the archive had been "meticulously cared for by Karen Elyse Hudson, Williams’ granddaughter, who has published extensively on his work."

Hudson explains in the statement that "Paul Williams led by example and instilled in his children and grandchildren the importance of excellence, an attention to detail, and above all, family. The collaboration of two such esteemed institutions, the University of Southern California (USC) and Getty Research Institute (GRI), to preserve and further his legacy, would make our grandfather extremely proud.” She adds that “as the family historian, my journey has b...

Paul R. Williams documentary to debut for Black History Month 2020

2020-02-06T18:30:00-05:00

Paul Revere Williams was one of the nation's most eminent architects beginning in the early 1920s and spanning his 5-decade-long career. He designed homes for celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz earning him the well-known nickname "Architect to the Stars." William's name is coupled with with iconic works of architecture like the Beverly Hills Hotel, the MCA HQ Building, and the LAX Theme Building.

Yet despite his notoriety, Williams faced discrimination because of his race. As an African-American architect, his social acceptance greatly contrasted that of his professional embracing. Right in time for Black History Month, PBS will be premiering Hollywood's Architect: the Paul R. Williams Story, which "tells the compelling, but little known story, of how he used talent and perseverance to beat the odds and create a body of work that can be found from coast to coast." the film will premiere on PBS stations thr...

Remembering the civic architecture of Paul Revere Williams

2019-12-18T18:55:00-05:00

A new episode of the Lost LA series on Los Angeles channel KCET highlights the civic architecture of noted and prolific architect Paul Revere Williams.

Williams, who built over 3,000 structures over a more than 50-year-long long career, is largely known for designing stylistically eclectic Hollywood movie star houses, but the breadth and scope of his legacy far exceeds works that simply cater to the rich and famous. Instead, Williams, who was posthumously awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal in 2017, worked across styles, building types, and formal approaches to arrive at one of the most diverse and visionary bodies of work of any American architect of the 20th Century.

During his time, Williams helped design key components of the Los Angeles International Airport complex, for example, as well as the Pueblo del Rio housing projects, the Founder's Church of Religious Science, and a number of public schools, churches, and commercial structures for communities...

Selgascano and Second Home prepare for their colorful Los Angeles debut

2019-06-21T12:09:00-04:00

A sea of canary yellow office pods is taking shape on a dusty lot off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. There, Spanish architects Selgascano and global co-working platform Second Home are busy finishing out the group’s new 90,000-square-foot Hollywood outpost, a mesmerizing construction site brimming with unusual architecture.

While touring the site, Second Home co-founder Rohan Silva explains the basic premise behind the budding social-business venture: “We want to put creative people together and help them do great work.”

Interior community arts spaces will be housed within a repurposed Paul Revere Williams-designed building. Image courtesy of Second Home.

That vision guides the architectural design of the complex as well as the company’s business plan. The site, arranged in two opposing configurations, mixes old and new, formal and ecstatic, staid and colorful. At the front of the complex, for example, an existing 1960s-era Paul Revere Williams-designed building that once hous...

Photographer Janna Ireland is on the hunt to capture Paul R. Williams' built legacy in L.A.

2018-10-01T19:40:00-04:00

For nearly two years, [Janna Ireland has] searched out buildings to photograph — mansions and housing projects, churches and banks designed by the Angeleno architect who died in 1980. [...] “I’m interested in stories about black people, and I’m interested in stories about Los Angeles. There’s an intersection there,” says Ireland, who grew up in Philadelphia.

Mimi Zeiger profiles artist/photographer Janna Ireland, who has spent the last two years photographing the buildings of Paul R. Williams as a way to preserve his architectural legacy.

“It has all of this psychological depth ... [Ireland's photos] don’t simply document the architectural quality of the building but capture the thought that went into making it,” Barbara Bestor says in the article in describing Ireland's work. Last December, the Julius Shulman Institute presented Ireland's photography in the exhibition, “There is Only One Paul R Williams: A Portrait by Janna Ireland”.

Winners, Whiners and Wine Boxes: Paul Revere Williams' posthumous Gold Medal, Jean Nouvel's legal woes and BIG's LA River project, on Archinect Sessions #92

2016-12-15T18:16:00-05:00

On this episode, we discuss the biggest news items of the past week, covering: the political bent to the AIA's Gold Medal being awarded posthumously to Paul Revere Williams; Jean Nouvel's legal battle over his "defiled" Paris Philharmonie; and BIG's new proposal for a giant, riverside mixed-user in LA's Arts District.

Listen to episode 92 of Archinect Sessions, "Winners, Whiners and Wine Boxes":

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Download: this episode

The news stories we discussed this week:

Jean Nouvel's court battle over the Philharmonie continues

2017 AIA Gold Medal posthumously awarded to Paul Revere Williams — the first African-American recipient

BIG proposes massive, gridded development for the LA Arts Distri...

2017 AIA Gold Medal posthumously awarded to Paul Revere Williams — the first African-American recipient

2016-12-07T20:02:00-05:00

It's that time of year when the American Institute of Architects reveals the winner of the AIA Gold Medal, which honors an individual's outstanding body of work that has influenced architecture theory and practice. For 2017, the Medal was awarded posthumously to architect Paul Revere Williams, the first African-American recipient. Williams passed away in 1980.

LAX Theme Building.

A trailblazer throughout his career, LA-born Paul Revere Williams was the first black architect to join the AIA and to be elected to the Institute's College of Fellows. He designed over 2,000 homes and commercial buildings around LA and abroad, including affordable homes for new homeowners, the glitzy abodes for his celebrity clients, and infamous icons like the LAX Theme Building (1961) and his renovation of the Beverly Hills Hotel (1949).

Having to deal with racial obstacles, Williams is also known for developing the ability to draw upside down to accommodate white clients who might not have wanted to si...