The design world is haunted by a ghost shared in many other facets of our society: it whispers in our minds about past wickedness, inspires guilt, and warns us of the present dangers of blind hatred. Discrimination forces many minorities to forgo the innate genius so many have to offer to the art and business worlds, among other venues for their talents. All forms of discrimination and segregation were designed to create and justify tyrannical holds of power by one group of people - just as there is a design in how we sometimes interact with other people [or in other words, manipulate them] for our personal gain. There were very few professional artists and designers in any industry who were not white up until the past two or three decades as a result of racial discrimination. But there were people, such as the infamous Los Angeles architect Paul Revere Williams (who was Black), who overcame these prejudices and discriminations to make huge strides in the arts and design worlds for all other minorities that dared chase a dream.

It is more astonishing to first see what Paul Williams accomplished in his career as an architect and cornerstone of the Los Angeles community, and then realize how he came to that point from a history that had all cards stacked against him:

Williams died on January 23, 1980, after having been retired for nearly seven years from architectural design, which he had always lovingly called his ‘hobby.’ According to family, Williams rarely ever spoke about his work, and kept his professional and personal life very separate. Known as the ‘architect to the stars,’ Williams designed almost 3,000 structures, of which nearly 2,000 were mansions for celebrities and millionaires. No single ‘Paul Williams’ design style exists - everything from Italian renaissance and Tudor-revival to space-age modernism and beyond were all to be found scattered throughout his work. The main unifying factor would have to be his wisdom in clean lines, simplifying the gaudily ornate, and in bringing a sense of conservative modernism to everything. Williams once noted that “when asked what was my theory of design – that I did so many contemporary buildings yet I shunned the exotic approach – my answer was, conservative designs stay in style longer and are a better investment.”

Williams garnered many honors and awards throughout his 50-year career. Three presidents of the United States appointed Williams to national commissions, and two California governors had Williams working on statewide commissions during their terms. There was even a presidential hopeful that took Williams on his campaign tour during the 1960s, which allowed Williams to speak at dozens of national venues on a broad array of topics, from civil rights to design. Several honorary degrees were conferred upon Williams during this time, in addition to the numerous other medals and recognitions given to him in honor of not only his architectural genius, but Williams’ social contributions. This included Williams’ designing churches, banks, and public housing which were the entire community in Los Angeles, as well as in other regions in the US and abroad - including people of all race, age, faith, and gender. One such structure is the famous Hollywood YMCA, with profiles of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington gracing the building’s façade.

Williams was not limited in his brilliance in architecture - he was a builder and designer of his community. Williams also was a prolific writer, penning dozens of articles aimed at the African-American community, which covered topics such as how to design and build a home on a budget, along with other economical suggestions for living and business.

Regardless of the shifts beginning to take place during his lifetime as regards civil rights and equality, Williams found himself occasionally having to take segregated bus and train commutes to some of his projects. It’s disgustingly ironic that most of the iconic, glamorous architecture that Southern California was well-known for during the first few decades of the 1900s are the works of an African-American architect who wasn’t able to ever own or live in any of these buildings. It’s not as though Williams could not afford such property (he could quite easily), but that nearly all buildings he designed were built on land that had ’segregation covenants’ in the deeds, which prevented “a Negro” from buying the land or living in such close proximity to white neighbors.

Even Williams’ famous ability to perfectly render drafts upside-down was a tactic for dealing with racism - this ability allowed his clients to sit opposite from him and see his rendering right-side-up on their side without having to sit next to the Black architect. Williams never complained on his own behalf, but the sting of racism was something he made sure his family could avoid to a small degree, by empowering his children with good educations and a solid upbringing that had compassion and respect at its core. He once stated that “White Americans, in spite of every prejudice, are essentially fair-minded people who cannot refuse to respect courage and honest effort. They will, therefore, give me an opportunity to prove my worth as an individual.”

Williams proved his faith in the intrinsic goodness in all people, through his success for a huge and diverse base of clientele.

With all these facts regarding Williams numerous successes, consider this: Williams was orphaned at four-years-old, raised in Los Angeles by good foster parents in a neighborhood where he was the only black child at his elementary school. He was noted from an early age to have a true gift for drawing and a fervent love of architectural structure. Williams faced racial prejudices not just during his adulthood, but also throughout his childhood and teenage years - one such instance was when he told his high school guidance counselor that he wanted to be an architect. The counselor baulked, saying “Whoever heard of a Negro being an architect?” Williams noted in his journal that this comment was the turning point in his life:

If I allow the fact that I am a Negro to checkmate my will to do now, I will inevitably form the habit of being defeated …. [If] prejudice is ever to be overcome it must be through the efforts of individual Negroes to rise above the average cultural level of their kind. Therefore, I owe it to myself and to my people to accept this challenge.

The overall life of Paul Williams was full of courage, compassion and creativity on so many different levels. Williams helped forge a way for minorities to gain respect for their invaluable contributions to society and global culture. Although there are still very few Black architects today - around the same number as there were during Williams’ lifetime - so much has been accomplished by so many inspired and gifted minorities across the globe. Art and design are a means of expression, freedom and power. Many thanks are owed to those who helped shape these opportunities for so many of us - design and art are no longer just for those with money, education or Caucasian bloodlines. Design is a universal way of enabling the human race to understand one another, and Williams forced Los Angeles to see in him as an artist and an architect, a talented human being.

Written by d/visible contributor, Ciera Waring.

Please see also the Via Magazine profile Paul Willams, an Architect, the USC biographical profile William the Conqueror, and the two biographies of Paul Williams by his granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson: Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style and The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Industrial, Culture, Architecture, Profile, Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.