Paul R. Williams 1894–1980

Architect

Known as the “architect to the stars,” Paul Williams had a major impact on the built landscape of southem California from the 1930s onward. One of the first black architects in the United States, he is remembered for creating a number of major commercial and public buildings, as well as mansions for the rich and famous. Williams designed thousands of small houses in developments all over California and Nevada, and luxury homes for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Cary Grant, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bud Abbott, and many other notable performers. As David Gebhard, professor of architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in Vogue, “If you’re talking about southern California architecture, you can’t not think of his [Williams’s] homes.”

Noted for his versatility, Williams designed everything from vacation getaways set within natural rock formations in the desert to chic fashion stores. Many of his works would feature prominently in any tour of architecture in the Los Angeles area, especially Beverly Hills. He designed more than 300 luxury homes in the so-called Platinum triangle that encompasses posh Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, and Bel Air. His buildings display many touches of elegance, as well as details that enhance gracious living.

According to Karima A. Haynes in Ebony, Williams was a “pioneering architect” whose buildings “established modern Los Angeles as the epicenter of casual ease.” Williams was also an eclectic who seamlessly merged traditional features with contemporary styles. His designs often featured dramatic entrances and ceilings that were clearly a testament to the wealth of the inhabitants.

Although known mostly for serving rich clients, Williams also felt it was important to meet the housing needs of the less privileged. As his granddaughter, Karen Hudson, said about her grandfather in House Beautiful, “He never lost sight of the importance of affordable housing. He believed you should give something back to your community.” Williams demonstrated that belief in the 1940s by creating the Pueblo del Rio housing project of two-story units on a very tight budget, and he also designed a large low-income housing project for the impoverished Watts area of Los Angeles. He revealed his sensitivity to the needs of children by refusing payment for his design of the main building of St. Jude Hospital, a children’s health-care facility in Memphis, Tennessee.

At a Glance…

Born Paul Revere Williams, February 18, 1894, in Los Angeles, CA; died of complications from diabetes, January 23,1980, in Los Angeles; son of Chester and Lila Williams; married Della Mae Givens, 1917; children: Marilyn Hudson, Normal Harvey. Education: Attended University of Southern California, and Beaux Arts Institute of Design; Howard University, Ph.D.; received postgraduate degrees from Lincoln University and Tuskeegee Institute.

Architect, 1921–73. Designed more than 3,000 commercial buildings, government offices, and private residences, including Saks Fifth Avenue store and Musical Corporation of America building, Beverly Hills, CA, Los Angeles County Courthouse, Los Angeles, CA, Grave of the Unknown Sailor, Pearl Harbor, HA, and U.S. Naval Station, Long Beach, CA. Appointed to Federal Housing Advisory Commission, 1953; elected Fellow of American Institute of Architects, 1957; president, Los Angeles Art Commission.

Awards: American Institute of Architects gold medal for “excellency of design” for Music Corporation of America building, Beverly Hills, CA, 1937; Spingarn Medal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1953.

Demonstrated Talent at a Young Age

Orphaned at the age of three, Paul Williams was subsequently raised by a foster mother. Early on he showed his fascination with drawing and spent much of his childhood sketching objects he saw or imagined in his head. His drawings eventually attracted the attention of a local builder who urged him to pursue a career in architecture. At that time, no blacks were known to be practicing architects, prompting Williams’s teacher at Los Angeles Polytechnic High School to tell him that he was crazy for considering an architectural career. Williams, however, thought he had the talent and work ethic to break down the walls in the field, and he continued in his quest. As Hudson said, “He believed he had a God-given talent, and he wasn’t going to be deterred from using it.”

While studying architecture at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design and the University of Southern California (USC), Williams helped pay for his education by working for a number of architects. Later he designed some fraternity and sorority houses at USC. He won a number of design competitions before receiving his license as an architect in 1921, often beating professionals with much more experience. In 1922 he opened his own architectural office and began designing small houses.

His introduction to the world of architecture was eye-opening for Williams. “Before I embarked on my architectural career I had never been in a home that cost more than $10,000,” said Williams, according to House Beautiful. Before long, he would be drawing plans for million-dollar residences. His steady rise through the ranks was based on both talent and keen attention to the desires of his clients. As Hudson noted in Vogue, “He [Williams] strongly believed that his worth as an architect was measured by his ability to please his clients. From the beginning, he was a good listener and incorporated the lifestyle of the family into the end results.”

After one year in private practice, Williams became the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Despite his acceptance, Williams still had to overcome many barriers put up by racism at the time, and he devised his own methods of doing so. As Gail Kennard Madyun wrote of Williams in Emerge, “his attitude was to confront injustices individually and tolerate the larger discrimination that he encountered.”

Williams bent over backward to circumvent opportunities for whites to display prejudice towards him. He taught himself to draw upside down, which impressed many of his clients, so that he could present layouts to white clients without making them have to stand next to a black man. He also learned keep his hands folded behind his back when meeting with whites, because he thought they might feel uneasy about shaking a black person’s hand. And Williams made sure he never dined with a white woman alone, even if she was a client.

Ironically, for many years Williams would have not been allowed to live in many of the neighborhoods where his designs enhanced the landscape. Despite this unfair treatment, he believed that the best way to achieve equality with whites was through hard work and personal achievement. A lifelong Republican who would later campaign for Nelson Rockefeller, Williams stated his belief clearly in a piece he wrote in 1937 entitled “I Am a Negro.” “Of course I know that I cannot be accepted socially by whites,” said Williams. “I have no desire to be, for I firmly believe that the Negro, in order to break down the racial barriers which affect his business success, should be ever careful in preserving the social barriers that set him apart.”

A series of successful designs helped build Williams’s reputation through the 1920s, and by the end of the decade he was working on bigger projects. His career took a leap forward when he was asked by racehorse owner Jack Atkin to design a castle for him in Pasadena to resemble one he had seen as a child in England. The monumental result became a highly celebrated California residence that was used as a setting for movies such as 1937’s Topper and 3 Men and a Little Lady in 1990, as well as for the late 1980s television shows Murder, She Wrote and Dynasty.

Promptness Propelled Career

Known for being a workhorse, Williams earned a major commission in 1932 for automobile industrialist E. L. Cord by presenting first plans to Cord within 24 hours after they were requested. Other architects vying for the same job had demanded two to three weeks to respond. For Cord, Williams created a mansion in Beverly Hills that included an 18-car garage. From then on he landed a number of major jobs for Hollywood bigwigs who wanted Williams to create their ideal luxury homes.

Always eager to satisfy his clients, Williams joined the bandwagon of architects working in revival styles that were popular in southern California at the time. He designed homes that incorporated features of English Tudor, French Norman, Spanish Colonial, Italianate, Georgian, and Regency. Williams soon became a master at working in almost any style. While a master of traditional styles, Williams also created stunning modern designs such as Lucille Ball’s low-slung residence and the sleek tennis clubhouse in Palm Springs, California, that he designed with A. Quincy Jones. As Gebhard said in House Beautiful, “Paul Williams was a very sophisticated designer, very innovative in using traditional imagery. Whatever style he chose to work in, he carried it off very well, both aesthetically and functionally.”

In the 1930s, his designs for such as celebrities as Tyrone Power and William Paley, helped Williams define the quintessential Hollywood Regency style. These homes were defined by open-air glamour, soaring foyers, coffered ceilings, curving staircases, massive windows with garden views, and other dramatic features that helped to define their inhabitants as royalty. He also made his mark by incorporating a wide range of details that enhanced luxurious living and became conversation pieces for his impressed clients. Williams paid particular attention to the effects of lighting and details on doors, windows, and staircases. In addition, many houses that Williams designed during Prohibition included hidden wine cellars that could be accessed by sliding panels built into the wall.

Commercial Works Solidified Reputation

Despite the vast number of homes designed by Williams, he is perhaps most remembered for his commercial and public buildings. One of his personal favorites was his Georgian-style Music Corporation of America building in Beverly Hills designed in the late 1930s. The building featured a formal garden, elegant portico, and exquisite wood paneling. Williams created the restaurants Chasen’s and Perinos in Los Angeles, parts of the Ambassador Hotel, the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in San Bernardino, California, and the Royal Nevada Motel and Church of St. Viator in Las Vegas.

In the public sector, Williams helped design the Los Angeles County Courthouse, Federal Customs Building in Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport, United Nations Building in Paris, and a number of schools. By 1945, Williams had a workforce of more than 50 people in his Los Angeles office on Wilshire Boulevard. At its peak, his operation also had offices in Washington, DC, and Bogota, Colombia, and earned commissions from clients abroad in France, Liberia, Mexico, and South America.

Williams put his stamp on the famous Beverly Hills Hotel in the mid-1940s, giving it its famed pink-and-green theme and script sign. He also redesigned the interior of the main building and bungalows, adding on the Crescent Wing. Soon after completion of his work, the hotel’s Polo Lounge and pool became regular hangouts of Hollywood movie stars. One of his notable designs in the 1950s was Frank Sinatra’s bachelor home, which Ebony called “a masterpiece of modernity with its numerous electronically controlled features considered futuristic in the late 1950s.”

Refused to Indulge in Self-Promotion

Even at the peak of his renown, Williams lived in homes far less lavish and expensive than his clients. Not one to broadcast his success, he was known as a dignified and understated man who always presented himself impeccably in dress and manner. He rarely indulged in self-hype, allowing his work to speak for itself. His ties to the black community remained strong throughout his life, and he frequently entertained distinguished blacks in his home, among them actor and singer Paul Robeson; Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat; singer Lena Home; and Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion.

When he retired in 1973, Williams had designed nearly 3,000 buildings and residences. By then, his success had served as an inspiration to an entire new generation of designers both black and white. As Wesley Henderson, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Texas, Austin, said in Emerge, “In terms of the volume and quality of his work and the caliber of his clients, Williams was pre-eminent among black architects of his time nationally. Williams was certainly considered a peer by his white colleagues and a part of the architectural establishment.”