The Missing Middle

Join exhibition curators Milton S.F. Curry and Valéry Augustin for a thought-provoking conversation exploring the role of housing in shaping the postwar Black middle class and the enduring legacy of architect Paul R. Williams. They will examine how contemporary artists and designers engage with Williams's work, influence, and vision for community-centered architecture.

The discussion will feature commissioned artists and architects: EnFOLD Collective (Megan Echols and Dana McKinney White), Janna Ireland, Amanda Williams, and more.

This program is presented in collaboration with the USC School of Architecture and USC Fisher Museum of art in conjunction with the exhibition Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered .

About the exhibit:

Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered debuts recently acquired archival drawings, photographs, and plans and pairs them with newly commissioned works by leading contemporary artists, architects, and filmmakers, reframing Paul R Williams’s long under-recognized work and addressing urgent conversations about race, equity, and the future of American cities.

A pivotal figure in 20th-century architecture and civil rights advocacy who studied architectural engineering at USC, Williams was the first Black architect licensed west of the Mississippi. He was also the first known Black member of the American Institute of Architects nationwide (1923), its first Black Fellow (1957), and the first and only Black architect to receive its highest honor, the Gold Medal (posthumously, 2017). Over a career spanning nearly six decades, he is estimated to have designed approximately 3,000 structures, making him one of the most prolific and influential architects of his time.

Highlighting 31 housing projects from his long career, Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered spotlights Williams’ innovative solutions for collective living, primarily in Los Angeles, during the second Great Migration, a period of rapid urbanization. More than 60 items from the Paul R. Williams Archive, which was jointly acquired in 2020 by the USC School of Architecture and the Getty Research Institute, will be shown in conversation with major new commissions, as well as a selection of existing works by photographers Julius Shulman and Janna Ireland.

Significant support for this exhibition and event has been generously provided by the Mellon Foundation.