Discover Paul R Williams' Designs through Drawing Workshop

From The Wonderlyst #135

In 1921, Paul R. Williams became the first Black architect licensed to practice west of the Mississippi. Over a career spanning nearly six decades, he designed more than 3,000 buildings and became particularly famous for the glamorous homes he created for Hollywood stars. But a new exhibition at USC’s Fisher Museum looks at a lesser-known side of his work: multifamily housing. Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered brings together more than 60 rarely seen drawings, photographs, and plans, focusing on 31 housing projects and the ways Williams approached collective living in a rapidly changing Los Angeles. I’m especially intrigued by a free workshop on October 17, when architect and exhibition curator Valéry Augustin will take a small group inside Williams’s design process by examining his original architectural drawings up close and then drawing from them. No drawing experience required, thankfully.