‘Paul R. Williams, American Architect’ returns to Memphis | News

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Paul Revere Williams. Courtesy of the Art Museum of the University of Memphis

The Art Museum of the University of Memphis is bringing back Paul R. Williams, American Architect later this month, revisiting its landmark 2010 exhibition on the work of the pioneering Black architect (1894–1980). 

The updated exhibition features more than 200 photographs by David Horan, organized by decade from the 1920s through the 1960s, documenting Williams’s remarkable range of residential and commercial work across Los Angeles.

The images were produced over two years as Horan and curator Leslie Luebbers traveled throughout the LA area, capturing everything from interiors and exteriors to Williams’s meticulous handling of light, detail, and spatial choreography. 

Paul R. Williams, Sketch for Saint Jude Hospital (now St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital), Memphis, TN, 1960. Courtesy Art Museum of the University of Memphis

The exhibition also reflects how much the research landscape around Williams has changed since 2010, including the 2020 acquisition of his architectural drawings by the Getty Research Institute and USC’s School of Architecture.

There’s a Memphis connection, too: Williams’s family had roots in the city, and he designed the original St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a distinctive five-pointed, star-shaped building that was eventually lost as the campus expanded. 

The exhibition draws on the University of Memphis’s Paul R. Williams Project, which began in 2006 as a collaboration with AIA Memphis and other local organizations, and a new project website will launch alongside the show.

Paul R. Williams: American Architect opens on Saturday, August 29.

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