Paul Revere Williams: An African-American Architect in Jet-Age L.A.

Although best known for designing the homes of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, the pioneering African-American architect Paul Revere Williams also contributed to some of the city’s most recognizable civic structures — all while confronting racial barriers. In this episode, we visit LAX’s iconic Theme Building with Rebecca Choi who studies politics, culture and representation of urban space and architectural form; a Williams-designed church with photographer Janna Ireland, who is training her lenses on many of the architect’s surviving projects; and the Pueblo del Rio public housing project archive.

The following changes were made to the original episode:
The statement about Mr. Williams’ adoption was removed.
The statement about Mr. Williams’ self- awareness of his racial identity was removed.
The statement about the extent of damage to the materials belonging to Mr. Williams was removed.