U of M spotlights pioneering architect

David Horan

The Baird/Stewart/Garza residence in Glendale, Calif.

By staging the first museum exhibition on African-American architect Paul R. Williams, the Art Museum of the University of Memphis is breaking ground of its own.

Called "Paul Revere Williams: American Architect," the 200-plus-image show, which runs through Jan. 8, shines a needed light on one of the 20th century's greatest building designers.

Special Collections University of Memphis Libraries

Architect Paul Revere Williams designed the original campus of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis for friend Danny Thomas.

Herald Examiner Collection Los Angeles Public Library

As significant as Williams' work is the fact he excelled in a segregated profession.

David Horan

The Baird/Stewart/Garza residence in Glendale, Calif.

Once known as the "architect to the stars," Williams (1894-1980) led a multifarious career, designing more than 3,000 buildings, from public spaces such as the Hollywood YMCA and Reno's First Church of Christ, Scientist (now on the National Register of Historic Places) to celebrity homes for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Johnny Weissmuller, Barbara Stanwyck, Lon Chaney and many others.

Notes architect-historian David Gebhard in "Paul R. Williams Architect: A Legacy of Style," the book by Williams' granddaughter Karen E. Hudson: "Williams had an adroit ability to maneuver beaux-arts formalism within different architectural styles and in projects both small and large."

Ironically, his career got an early boost from the residence he made for "Amos 'n' Andy" comedian Charles Correll.

"That house was immense and very well known and a showplace," says U of M art museum director Leslie L. Luebbers, who curated the exhibit. "So it actually helped launch him into building houses for the elite."

Active from the 1920s through the 1960s, Los Angeles-born and -based Williams was hailed both for his designs and for his progress as an African American within what was an essentially segregated profession. In 1926, he became the first documented black member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and in 1957, he was the first black architect to gain membership in the AIA's College of Fellows. Also in the 1950s, he was awarded the NAACP Spingarn medal for outstanding achievement. By the early 1960s, Ebony magazine had listed Williams among "America's 100 Richest Negroes."

"The main thing was his incredible success," says Luebbers. "Architecture in all professions was and primarily still is sort of upper-class white guys who come through MIT and so forth. It's a network, and it was way more true at the turn of the century when he was doing this."

Luebbers hopes to eventually tour the show, which has its own website, the Paul R. Williams Project (paulrwilliamsproject.org), a collaborative effort between, among others, the U of M and AIA Memphis. Local involvement in such a quintessentially California figure is not coincidental. Williams' parents were from Memphis, where, before moving west, his father worked as a waiter at the Peabody and was a partner in a Beale Street bakery. More significant, Williams designed the original St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for friend Danny Thomas. And the show is a perfect fit with the larger Afrodiasporic missive of the school museum.

What viewers will enjoy most are stunningly seductive large-format photographs of a number of Williams' homes. Taken by U of M instructor David Horan and student Chris Fitzgerald, the images put you inside the houses in a way that blueprints or models cannot. Such accessibility sets the Williams exhibit apart from the typical architectural show; thanks to the presentation, you don't have to be an expert to appreciate his pioneering talents.

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"Paul Revere Williams: American Architect"

On display through Jan. 8 at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 142 Communication Fine Arts Building.

Call 678-2224 or go to http://amum.org.

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