Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line
First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles (exterior rendering), ca. 1960, Paul R. Williams (American, 1894–1980). Ink on paper. Getty Research Institute & USC School of Architecture, 2020.M.6. © Della M. Williams Trust Dated December 15, 1988
Groundbreaking architect Paul R. Williams charted an unprecedented career. The first Black architect licensed in the western US, Williams was a prolific, transformative figure, but his role constructing for and with Black communities across the color line has been little accounted for. Marking the public debut of his archive, this exhibition examines the impact of Williams’s architecture in challenging systems and structures of racialized exclusion, offering an intimate portrait of life, hope, and possibility coursing through the collective construction of the architecture of Black Los Angeles. It attests to architecture’s capacity to give rise to community, to construct social opportunities, and to shape to Black spatial imaginaries—legacies that extend to this day.
Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line will be presented alongside shows at LACMA and USC Fisher Museum of Art, marking the first major museum retrospectives dedicated to this influential figure.