Paul R. Williams: A Gracious Legacy
April 18, 2015 |
Karen Hudson will discuss the groundbreaking career of Paul R. Williams, spanning 50 years and some 3,000 projects. Williams became know for his elegantly stylized designs and had a list of such celebrity clients as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Tyrone Power, Lon Chaney, Bert Lahr and Zsa Zsa Gabor. The Los Angeles Times observed, “If you have a picture in your mind of Southern California in the 1950s and early 1960s, you are quite likely picturing a building created by Paul Williams.” Williams designed such iconic public buildings as the futuristic Theme Building at LAX, LA County Courthouse, Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills, and the 1940s redesign of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
As the granddaughter of the legendary architect, Hudson will give us a historical and uniquely personal view of the man who was the first black architect to become a member of the American Institute of Architects, in 1923, and in 1957 was inducted as the AIA’s first black fellow.
About the Lecturer: Karen Hudson is director of the Paul R. Williams Architectural Collection. A third-generation Angeleno, Hudson chronicles the history of blacks in Los Angeles through photography and writing. Hudson is the author of Paul R. Williams — Architect: A Legacy of Style; The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams Architect; Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times; and Paul R. Williams, Classic Hollywood Style. Hudson is currently writing a book on her two grandfathers, Paul R. Williams and Dr. H. Claude Hudson, which will look at early black Los Angeles through the eyes of these two remarkable men.
About the Venue: Scottish Rite Cathedral in Pasadena, California was built in 1925, by Joseph J. Blick and W. C. Crowell, in a Moderne and/or Zig-Zag Moderne style.
Architecturally significant in greater Los Angeles as a pre-PWA Classical Moderne building with distinctive decorative guardian sphinxes. The Scottish Rite Cathedral is associated strongly with the social history of Pasadena, in particular with the Scottish Rite, an appendant body associated with Freemasonry.
Lecture by Karen Hudson
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Lecture: 11:00 a.m.
Scottish Rite Temple
150 N Madison Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101
FoGH Members: $25 | Non-Members: $30
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Website:
gamblehouse.org/events/ |
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| Location Information |
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Scottish Rite Temple |
150 N Madison Ave
Pasadena, CA 91101 |
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| Contact Information |
| Email:
gamblehs@usc.edu |
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