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Design Things To Do
Top Pick: Paul R. Williams, Reconsidered
Paul R. Williams is well-known for his glamorous Hollywood Regency and Moderne homes for movie stars as well as for his powerful life story: he was the first Black architect licensed west of the Mississippi, and a prolific builder during the very time he was excluded by race from many of the neighborhoods for which he designed houses.
Williams is less well-known for his extensive work in multifamily housing, so it is very exciting to learn about Paul R. Williams: An Architect Considered, an exhibition opening its doors on August 18th at USC Fisher Museum of Art.
There you will find 31 projects, from his public housing — including the garden apartment complexes Pueblo del Rio, Hacienda Village (now Gonzaque Village) and Nickerson Gardens — to single-occupancy YMCAs in Hollywood and South Los Angeles to modest multi-unit walkups in Beverly Hills and San Diego.
 Paul R. Williams at Compton Housing. Photo courtesy USC Fisher Museum of Art.
This show, co-organized by the museum and USC School of Architecture, was curated by Valery Augustin, Milton S.F. Curry, and Amy Murphy. It features more than 60 items from the Paul R. Williams’s archive, which was jointly acquired in 2020 by the Getty Research Institute and the USC School of Architecture.
They will be displayed in tandem with new commissions by Edgar Arceneaux; Current Interests (Matthew Au and Mira Henry), enFOLD Collective (Dana McKinney White and Megan Echols), Darell W. Fields, David Hartt, Cory Henry, and Amanda Williams, as well as a selection of photography by Julius Shulman and Janna Ireland. Click here for more details.
Quick Picks
Three contemporary artists of South Asian descent — Suchitra Mattai, Jagdeep Raina, and Swapnaa Tamhane — “transform textiles of their cultural heritage into celebrations of those who have been unrecognized in public displays of historical memory.” See them at Textiles As Monument, an exhibition opening to the public with a launch party at the Fowler on August 8th, 6:00 PM–9:00 PM (the show lasts through June 2027).
 Image courtesy Fowler Museum
The design, landscape, and architecture firm RIOS designs buildings and the spaces in between, including Gloria Molina Grand Park, ROW DTLA, and, now, the LA County General Hospital overhaul (see above). This Saturday, August 8th, from 11:00 AM–3:00 PM, RIOS opens its doors for a Social Impact Initiative (SII) Community Open House in Leimert Park. Expect an art show, design activities for all ages, and a lunchtime dialogue, Planting Seeds: How We Gather in Public Spaces, with Crista Campos, Gloria Molina Grand Park / The Music Center; Tafarai Bayne, CicLAvia; Jonathan Hale, People's Vision Zero. Click here to RSVP.
 Grand Park. Photo courtesy RIOS
Take a respite from the heat and dryness of the city in summer by touring the lovely Huntington Gardens at twilight. The San Marino destination is offering ticketed, docent-led Twilight Garden Estate Tours on Sunday, August 9th and 16th, in time slots between 4:30 and 7:30 PM. Learn about the history of the gardens as well as experience spaces at the intersection of architecture and landscape, such as the Chinese Garden, below. Click here to book tickets.
 Chinese Garden at Huntington Gardens. Photo by Frances Anderton
Little in the LA cityscape has captured the public imagination like the Oceanwide “Graffiti Towers” (read more, above). Now you can join a tour of the perimeter of the abandoned, painted towers, hosted by the activist Rent Brigade. The 2-hour tour, taking place on August 9th and 16th, at 5:00 PM, is led by UCLA urban and regional planning graduate Jordan Wynne, who wrote his thesis on the towers and “Graffiti as Insurgent Planning in Downtown Los Angeles.” His passion for the topic is infectious. Click here to RSVP.
 Photo by Frances Anderton
Following a long closure to repair exterior garden damage and interior smoke damage from the 2025 Palisades Fire, the historic Villa Aurora will reopen, with a public gathering on August 30th, from 3:00–5:00 PM. The place has a storied history, from its construction in the 1920s as a model house in the Spanish Colonial Revival style to its role as home and cultural salon for the exiled German-Jewish novelist Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife, Marta, and, today, as a cultural center and residency program supported by the German government. Click here to RSVP for the happy re-opening event.
 Villa Aurora following the Palisades Fire. Photo by Mike Kelley, Courtesy of Villa Aurora
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