Jones, a Naval officer based in the Hawaiian Islands during the war, was a natural to head up the design and made the original exploratory trips to Hawaii and prepared the below presentation renderings and a model which was photographed by Julius Shulman. The consortium commissioned Jones and Williams in 1946 to prepare plans for 26 suites or cottages, tennis courts, a Pearl Harbor Yacht Club and other recreational and related facilities and remodeling the Holmes mansion and barracks and other facilities erected by the Army for a rest camp for combat officers. The article with renderings describes the purchase and plans to spend an additional $500,000 to create a "combination millionaire's playground and crossroads hostel for high level international citizens." The article goes on to state that there will soon be thirty members with as many as 150 to follow. (See "Pacific Island Turned Into South Sea Paradise", Los Angeles Times, Feb 17, 1947, p. The Pauley group had a grand vision to further develop the island as a private, membership only resort. Let us hope that that changes."Moku o Lo'e: A History of Coconut Island" by P. There are still a very small number of architects who are African American in the US. Hope you take a look and learn more about him. Here is a link to a book about him Paul R Williams. Here is a recent article about him in Fast Company. Some of the houses allowed African Americans to own them – which was very uncommon. Architect Williams also designed affordable housing across the country. He is famous for designing houses for rich and famous people in Hollywood, like Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Bert Lahr (who was the cowardly lion in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.”) Williams is also known for designing many public buildings like the very recognizable tower at the Los Angeles Airport that looks like a hollowed dome with a suspended structure in the center. He was the first African-American west of the Mississippi to get that certification. In 1921, he was certified as an architect. He literally learned how to draw UPSIDE DOWN because of racism.Īrchitect Paul Revere Williams designed many structures at a time when very few people of color had the opportunity to practice architecture. Instead, Williams figured out that if he sat facing them and drew UPSIDE DOWN, then they could see what he was proposing without any feelings of discomfort for the client. He knew that white clients would not have wanted a black man to stand up over them and show their work because it might be intimidating for the white man. He was forced to figure out a way to work as a black man with white clients. He didn’t learn to draw upside down like you might learn to hang from the monkey bars upside down, just for fun. This is an unusual and rather peculiar skill. He was an excellent draftsman (someone who makes architectural drawings) and he could even draw upside down. Back in his day, it was almost unheard of. Being a black man was (and continues to be) unusual in the field of architecture. Williams was a remarkable architect because he designed so many different types of buildings well, because he was a design innovator and a design thinker.
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