An Iconic Architect | Paul Revere Williams - ARTEFFECTS

[Music] foreign Paul Revere Williams designed structures that everyone uses throughout their daily lives he goes beyond designing wonderful structures he goes into designing communities the thing about his body of work is this extreme attention to detail the quality is consistent Williams was really a master not just at giving his clients everything that they wanted but specifically tailoring his design so beautifully whether that was a mansion in Beverly Hills or a ranch house in Nevada he put his ego aside to navigate through racial barriers to give everyone of every socioeconomic class the comfort of a home I feel that every nevadan should realize that Paul Revere Williams was a genius that stands the test of time [Music] Paul Revere Williams was born in 1894 in Los Angeles California in 1919 he graduated from USC with an architectural engineering degree becoming the first African-American graduate of the university in 1923 he joined the American Institute of Architects becoming the first African-American member of that Institute some of the designs that he focused on are Mediterranean Spanish Colonial neoclassical and after World War II he focused more on mid-century modern I'm Carmen Beals and I am the curator of the exhibition Jonna Ireland on the architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams in Nevada you will be able to understand the rich history of designs by Mr Paul Revere Williams and you will be able to see it through a unique lens of Contemporary Art developed by artist and educator Johnna Ireland a lot of my work is about people whether that is Human Relationships or the built environment that people create for themselves she has this beautiful profound way of capturing a linear design something is very signature of his piece such as a curve or a window that has natural light beaming into a specific facility followed by this gorgeous shadow that creates a rich moodiness for the exhibition I came back to Las Vegas I also visited Reno in some small cities outside of Reno and I had the fabulous opportunity to visit each of these sites together for me it was this really exciting opportunity to do this new body of work to meet these new people to learn about and really study another person who I wouldn't have thought to look into on my own and to learn a lot about the field of architecture Paul Revere Williams began working in Nevada with his first project in 1934 which was a commission by Miss Luella Garvey Carmen and I showed up hoping to photograph the outside and then we met someone who introduced us to someone else and we were able to just photograph it on the spot which is one of the wonderful surprises of working on this project some of the characteristics of the Garvey residents include ironwork index exterior it has the beautiful signature staircases that Paul Revere Williams is known for it has many large Windows to capture the natural lighting and it is a wonderful L-shaped property that is made in a colonial revival Style I am very drawn to Shadow I'm drawn to the way light comes through a particular window at a particular time of day I'm drawn to the way that the corners of a room might come together or to things like the place between two rooms where you can see the flooring change from one kind to another just the seams of it I think are what I keep looking at Rancho San Rafael was the first place that I visited in Reno so my first morning there I got into Carmen's car and we drove out there in 1936 Dr Raphael Herman his brother Norman Herman and his brother's wife purchased 375 Acres of land right outside of Reno they immediately named it Rancho San Rafael they were able to connect with Williams to commission him to design their property the Hermann house is a really good example of how williams was very precise in his architectural drawings of delineigating very specific character defining features and that's found in everything from the curvature on the mantle to the pediments above the doorways and even the specific design of the ironwork in the staircase photographing in black and white really allows me to focus on the architecture and kind of strip out detail that I feel is extraneous whether that is color or Texture or Furniture it's just one way to zero in on what I'm really looking at another really neat set of properties that I photographed was the El Reno apartments or in one of the El Reno Apartments which are actually self-contained homes but they were treated as Apartments when they were built in Reno in 1937. one of the things that makes these homes so unique is that they look from the outside like they're made of wood when it's actually steel these least steel homes came out of this philosophy that good architecture should be available to everyone the ones that we were able to visit are being used in really different ways which is something that was really interesting to me so there are some that are private homes there are some that are kind of abandoned nothing's really being done with maybe they need some extra care there was one that is sort of half Museum half office space another one is a restaurant so it was fun to travel around the city and look at these different places and the way that the same architecture is just being used to do different things and seeing the same architectural details repeat in these different contexts [Music] First Church of Christ scientist is another Paul Revere Williams facility today it's known as the Lear theater is located downtown along the Truckee River it has twin balustruths that lead up to a beautiful entry Portico and the facility is supported by four thin columns as you go into the facility is two stories and you can see his signature elements of bringing in natural light that bathes the walls Jonna and I went to visit Central Nevada Circle L Ranch the Tharp residence along with the Love Lock Inn which still stands today the experience of getting into the car and seeing this brand new landscape trying to find dire Nevada this little town that I hadn't heard of before and then having the opportunity to spend hours and hours wandering around this unfamiliar space which is to something that is exciting to me every time I get to do it [Applause] Las Vegas was an area in the desert was almost primitive in the beginning Paul R Williams comes here and is able to take a place like that and not just construct buildings in communities to House people but he was able to construct buildings on the Las Vegas Strip there are two places that Paul R Williams designed that are just amazing one is the La Concha hotel lobby the building is a architectural style called architecture which is this really fascinating jet aged Sleek futuristic Style that Lobby is amazing it shows what Las Vegas can be it shows what the future is of the Las Vegas Strip there is also another thing that he did and and this is not just because it's so elegant but because he did it for the African-American community Berkeley Square [Music] Berkeley square is the first middle class suburb of Las Vegas and it's located in the historic west side which is the community that was segregated and redline for people of color to stay the 148 houses are three bedroom two bathroom the homes are single story homes and they have low pitched roofs and these were designed for middle class black Americans who didn't really have any development in the West Side Community that they could really buy into I think this building that we're in right now the guardian angels Cathedral has been my favorite building to photograph in southern Nevada one thing that I really love about this building is the way that the art and the architecture feel so firmly integrated the stained glass and mosaics were designed by the pixic sisters Isabelle and Edith picksick my favorite window personally is the window directly behind me in the sanctuary on the South Side it shows casinos that were the neighbors of this building when this building was built it's a threshold between what was what is and in the eyes of Faith what will be and I think that speaks well of how architecture serves both the function that it needs to serve to be a worthy place for people to gather but also forms its own identity as part of what it is in a living metaphor I am hoping that this exhibit is just going to blow your mind and just teach us something it's only by learning more about the incredible architecture of Williamson Nevada that we can gain more appreciation for that architecture for its beauty and for the momentous life of Paul Revere Williams and everything that he can teach us if you think about it a lot of the designs that he has they were so Superior that they are still standing today and we are still talking about them right now I hope that people see this as just kind of the tip of the iceberg that it is a little tiny introduction to this enormous body of work that Paul Williams put out in his lifetime I also hope that people understand it as my interpretation of the work and that they realize that if they visited these spaces they would see completely different things and have a completely different experience of the work [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: PBS Reno

Views: 1,315

Keywords: Art, documentary, arteffects, PBSReno, reno, nevada, artist, art, knpb, channel 5, pbs, art effects, pbs reno, paul revere williams, carmen beals, janna ireland, claytee white, alicia barber, bob stoeckig, guardian angel cathedral, la concha motel lobby, berkley square, las vegas, herman house, lear theatre, lear theater, el reno apartments, luella garvey residence, highlights magazine, colombus, ohio, los angeles, vegas, guardian, angel, cathedral, architect, architecture, photography, photo

Id: nR2iS5uhVjo

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2023