Paul R. Williams in Beverly Hills and Hancock Park

If you spend any time looking at houses in Hancock Park or Beverly Hills, one name comes up again and again in listing descriptions: Paul R. Williams. He's one of the most important architects Los Angeles ever produced, and this winter is the best moment in years to get to know his work. Three LA museums are opening Williams exhibitions at the same time.

Who he was

Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1894 and lost both parents by the age of four. He became a licensed architect in 1921, the first Black architect licensed west of the Mississippi, opened his own practice in 1923 and became the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects. He kept working until he retired in 1973, and he died in 1980. In 2017 the AIA awarded him its Gold Medal, its highest honor.

The LA Conservancy credits him with nearly 2,000 homes in Los Angeles, and more than 3,000 buildings over his career. That range is the remarkable part. He designed grand estates, but also modest houses, public housing, office buildings, hotels and civic landmarks. The story most often told about him is that he taught himself to draw upside down, so he could sketch a plan facing a client across the table.

His style, in one idea

Williams was a master of revival styles: Tudor, Georgian, French, Spanish Colonial, Regency. What set him apart was how he used them. The outside of a Williams house speaks the historic language fluently, with careful proportions and real craft. The inside is planned for the way people actually lived in Southern California: easy flow between rooms, generous windows and an easy connection to the garden. Graceful curved staircases are a frequent signature. Later in his career he worked comfortably in a cleaner, modern vocabulary too.

Hancock Park and Windsor Square

Hancock Park filled in during the 1920s and 30s with large revival homes on deep lawns, and Williams designed a number of them. The Paul Revere Williams Project documents his houses on streets like South Hudson Avenue, North McCadden Place and South Las Palmas Avenue, mixing English, French and even Gothic revival exteriors with interiors planned for modern life. Nearby in Windsor Square, the 1923 Leistikow House is one of his early Tudor designs, with a stepped band of windows that follows the staircase inside, as the National Trust describes it. These are private homes, so the view is from the street, and from the street alone the neighborhood is a good lesson in his range.

Beverly Hills

The most famous Williams work in Beverly Hills is one everyone can visit. In the 1940s he led a major redesign of the Beverly Hills Hotel, adding the Crescent Wing and the pink-and-green look the hotel still wears. The script lettering on the sign is based on his own handwriting. The National Trust notes that, because of his race, he was not allowed to stay overnight in the hotel he helped define, a fact worth sitting with on your next visit to the Polo Lounge.

He also designed the interiors, and later an expansion, of Saks Fifth Avenue on Wilshire Boulevard. Many of his private houses are scattered through Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the hills above them, mostly hidden behind gates and hedges.

Beyond the two neighborhoods

• His own house. In the early 1950s Williams built a crisp International Style home for himself in Lafayette Square, near West Adams. It's now a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
• Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. His 1949 Late Moderne office building on West Adams Boulevard, with two lobby murals on Black history in California.
• The LAX Theme Building. The 1961 landmark he worked on as part of a team with Pereira & Luckman and Welton Becket.

Three shows this winter

In 2020 the Getty Research Institute and USC jointly acquired Williams's archive, tens of thousands of plans and drawings long thought lost in a 1992 fire. The first big results are on view now:

• USC Fisher Museum of Art: "Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered," August 18, 2026 to March 13, 2027 (USC).
• LACMA, Resnick Pavilion: "Paul R. Williams: Architect for Living," November 15, 2026 to May 31, 2027 (LACMA).
• Getty Center: "Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line," December 15, 2026 to March 14, 2027 (Getty).

If you're buying a Williams house

• Confirm the attribution. "Attributed to" isn't the same as documented. Original building permits, the Getty and USC archive, and the Paul Revere Williams Project are where to start. I'm happy to pull the permit history for any house you're considering.
• Know what's original. Many Williams houses have been altered over the decades. Compare what's there now with early photos and plans where they exist.
• Check preservation rules. Parts of Hancock Park and Windsor Square fall within Historic Preservation Overlay Zones, where exterior changes generally need review. Confirm any address with LA City Planning. In Beverly Hills, check with the city's planning department.

For more on the revival houses he worked in, see our guide to Spanish homes in LA.

General information, not advice. Price figures are estimates from public data and may be out of date.