Overcome
Would He
Remembering Architect
Paul Williams By Diane Kanner
N
oted architect Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980) rose to promi- nence in Los Angeles when deed restrictions barred African Amer- icans and Asians from living in many of the city’s neighborhoods.
Today, Williams is recognized as one of our “starchitects” and homes attributed to him sell in the seven figures. Orphaned at four, his foster mother recognized his talent for
Photo courtesy of Karen Hudson
drawing. “Explore the city,” he was advised and he carried sketch- books and pencils to Sentuous Avenue Elementary where he was the only non-white student. On the path towards graduation from Polytechnic High, when he told
his dream to a guidance counselor, “He stared at me with as much aston- ishment as he would have had I proposed a rocket flight to Mars,”
