Home | Background | Architecture | Paul R. Williams (FAIA) | Developer | Press Links | Petition (links offsite) | Message Board (links offsite) DONATE and MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Save La Concha Motel Las Vegas Nevada About the La Concha Motel Architect Paul R. Williams The La Concha Motel Las Vegas was designed by one of the most prolific Architects of the SouthWestern United States, Paul Revere Williams(Feb 18, 1894 - Jan. 23, 1980). Paul R. Williams was the first African-American member-and Fellow-of the American Institute of Architects. He worked from the 1920s when he was just in his twenties himself through the 1970's. His prolific career included more than 3000 buildings including million dollar estates for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Julie London and Anthony Quinn as well as low income housing. While most of his work was done in his native city of Los Angeles, Mr. Williams ventured out to other cities to create one of a kind structures in a few other lucky cities. His vast body of built work stretches across the world-from Paris and Colombia to Washington, D.C., New York, and Memphis. " Karen Hudson in Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style "Williams enjoyed the advantages of a career that afford him a close association with giants of industry, prominent politicians, and some of the most exciting people in the blossoming entertainment industry. Still, nothing would deter him from addressing the needs of the growing African-American community. He took genuine pride in being able to influence the look and environment of his own community. From churches to mortuaries, youth centers to financial institutions, Williams believed that the visibility of his designs in the community where he lived and socialized was immensely important." Karen E. Hudson Williams story is an amazing one. He was orphaned at 4 years old and managed to beat all the odds being an excellent student and artist. He won a Medal of Excellence at an L.A. workshop of New York’s Beaux Arts Institute of Design and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California as an architectural engineering student. He became the first certified African American licensed architect west of the Mississippi in 1921 at age 28 and started his own firm and became a member of the Los Angeles first City Planning Commission. Williams became the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1923 and the first African American elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1957. "Virtually everything pertaining to my professional life during those early years was influenced by my need to offset race prejudice, by my effort to force white people to consider me as an individual rather than as a member of a race. Occasionally, I encountered irreconcilables who simply refused to give me a hearing, but on the whole I have been treated with an amazing fairness." I Am a Negro, July 1937 In an era of racial segregation, Mr Williams remarkably learned to draw upside down so that certain sensitive clients did not have to sit directly next to him. In 1962, a year after he built La Concha, Paul R. Williams was an associate architect (with Welton Beckett and Assoc.) for the Los Angeles International Airport theme building. AND in 1963 Paul R. Williams designed the outstanding Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas right down the strip from La Concha at 302 Cathedral Way at Stardust and Desert Inn Road. Williams was known for dramatic curves in his work as can be seen in the curves staircases of his private commissions and public buildings such as the LAX theme building and La Concha. Williams retired in 1973. ____________________________________________________________________ Suggested Reading: Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style, by Karen E. Hudson, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., N.Y. 1993 The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect, Karen E. Hudson, ed., Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., N.Y. 1994 Website was produced by HOMECAMP.com | hosted by Itempo.com