It is a richness that I cannot even describe.” “It captures this big change in the profession. “It captures the beginning of the jet age with the design of LAX,” says Casciato. (Think: the series of intersecting boxes that comprise his firm’s Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building at W. ![]() Williams was born in 1894 and died in 1980 - and his career as a designer spans the graceful, undulating forms of Spanish Revival architecture to the more rectilinear shapes of Modernism at mid-century. His archive also serves as a chronicle of almost a century of architecture in the region. She notes that though Williams worked independently as the principal of his own studio, he also collaborated with many of the big Los Angeles firms of the era on major projects, including LAX. “This will really shed an incredible light on understanding architecture better in Los Angeles - that it wasn’t just individual architects, but a network of professionals,” says Maristella Casciato, the GRI’s senior curator of architecture. Guests raved about the sound quality of the recorded music.It also helps bring Williams’ work full circle: A native-born Angeleno, he studied architectural engineering at USC, graduating in 1919.įor the Getty Research Institute, the acquisition adds another important resource to an already prestigious archive that includes many of the key players of Southern California architecture in the 20th and 21st century, including Welton Becket (designer of the Music Center), Pierre Koenig (of the hill-hugging Stahl House), John Lautner (the spaceship-esque Chemosphere) and Frank Gehry (the ebullient Disney Hall). When Sinatra told him he wanted his house built around the hi-fi system, Williams had the walls of the main living space filled with special acoustical gravel and installed a series of powerful loudspeakers under the ceiling sheetrock. He had modern built-in cabinets installed to house the electronics, control pads and "dooh-dads" creating a neat, uncluttered look. The Sinatra house was filled with his discoveries. Williams, always fascinated by gadgets and mechanical toys, brainstormed with leading engineers and immersed himself in futuristic state-of-the-art technologies. Her role on the Sinatra project was to select the soft goods and oriental style furniture and decorative items to compliment her father's bold Japanese Modern concept.įrank Sinatra wanted his home fitted with the latest of everything and he proudly demonstrated some of the "equipment" to the television audience. An experienced "color consultant," Norma knew her father's design philosophy. By the 1950s Williams could call on a trusted in-house team headed by his daughter Norma Williams Harvey. ![]() By the tour's end the house had become part of popular culture.Īs many of Williams' celebrity clients were inexperienced and unsure in their tastes, the architect frequently employed well-known interior designers to guide them. Murrow and the viewers followed Sinatra as he walked them through his newly completed home designed by Paul R. That night Frank Sinatra proved to be an irresistible draw. Murrow's staged, at-home conversations with the most famous personalities of the day were unprecedented. The viewers were no longer satisfied with only reading about famous people they now craved authenticity. Person to Person, an early progenitor of modern reality television was a rating hit from the beginning as it capitalized on the public's fascination with celebrity. ![]() Given a free hand to design, the house would become Williams' unfettered vision of the future. ![]() He quickly hired Williams as his architect and gave the designer carte blanche. Between marriages and needing a home base near the Hollywood studios, he purchased a hilltop lot on Bowmont Drive in the Trousdale Estate development with spectacular views of both Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. In the 1950s Frank Sinatra wanted to extend his career by acting in more films.
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