From depictions of a Las Vegas cathedral’s intricate stained glass to images of the undulating, shell-shaped roof of a roadside motel, Janna Ireland’s poetic black-and-white photographs, now on view at the Nevada Art Museum, pay homage to the storied architect Paul Revere Williams. The first licensed Black architect on the west coast, the Los Angeles-born Williams (1894-1980) was for decades excluded from the American architectural canon—despite having designed over 3,000 buildings, including numerous acclaimed landmarks, over the course of a decades-long career. Often deemed “the architect to the stars” for the grand houses he created for Hollywood celebrities, Williams became the AIA’s first Black member in 1923 and posthumously received the organization’s Gold Medal in 2017.
Paul Revere Williams portrait. Photo courtesy Janna Ireland
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