The Architect And ‘Famously Sharp Dresser’ Whose Archive Was Destroyed In The L.A. Riots

Paul Revere Williams received a posthumous American Institute of Architects Gold Medal this weekend, but there’s so much more to his story: “Battling the sort of prejudice that not only shaped his roster of clients but was entrenched in the built landscape of the city itself — whites-only covenants meant that he was banned from living in many of the neighborhoods where his most impressive houses went up — Williams never had the luxury of thinking of architecture and race as separate. His career was one long negotiation between the two.”