The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is celebrating Paul R. Williams, the architect who shaped much of modern Los Angeles, in a new exhibition opening on 15 November. Paul R. Williams: Architect for Living runs until 31 May 2027 and brings together drawings and photographs that have never been exhibited before.

Williams was the most prominent Black American architect of his generation, designing homes for Hollywood stars, public buildings and civic landmarks across a city that often refused him entry to the very places he built. His work ranges from the grand houses of Beverly Hills to churches, hospitals and the terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, and his career is a story of talent prevailing over the segregation of his time.

The exhibition is organised jointly with the Getty Research Institute and the USC Fisher Museum, drawing on archives that hold Williams's papers and designs. The never-before-shown material offers a closer look at how he worked, from early sketches to finished plans, and at the scale of a practice that left its mark on the city.

For LACMA, the show is a chance to put architecture at the centre of its programme and to recognise a figure whose buildings are part of daily life in Los Angeles. Williams's story, of a Black architect working at the highest level in a segregated profession, gives the exhibition a weight that goes beyond design history. His clients included Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, and his work ranged from private houses to public buildings, churches and hospitals across Southern California. The exhibition draws on the archives of the Getty Research Institute, which holds Williams's papers, to show how a single architect could shape the look of an entire city.