1958 – Paul Revere Williams Project

[timeline_event category=”Paul Revere Williams” title=”Selected to design Church of Religious Science” layout=”true” images=”2753″]

Dr. Earnest Holmes, Church of Religious Science founder, selects Paul Williams as the architect for their new round church in Los Angeles. Dr. Holmes suggests that the Devil can’t hide in the corners of a round building.

In this 1958 Jet photograph, Williams views a rendering of the church with Dr. Earnest Holmes.

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[timeline_event category=”News at the Time” title=”New UCLA Botanical Structure Started” images=”1678″]

Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1958

“The four-story structure will be located in one of the Southland’s most beautiful botanical gardens … Paul R. Williams is executive architect … expected completion date for the Botany Building project is June 1, 1959.”

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[timeline_event category=”News at the Time” title=”State Department Job”]Jet, February 6, 1958

“Architect Paul Williams, a GOP showcase figure, was nixed for State Dept. architectural job. Reason: not enough experience.”[/timeline_event]

[timeline_event category=”News at the Time” title=”Kreis Announces Opening of New Signature Room”]

Desert Sun March 14, 1958

“Milton F. Kreis has announced the opening of his new Signature Room in the Oasis Building…The plush new restaurant and cocktail lounge was designed and executed by the world-famous architect, Paul R. Williams and features many firsts.”

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[timeline_event category=”Social & Urban History” title=”Washington Dulles International Airport, Fairfax, Virginia” images=”2754″]To meet the growing demand for more airport capacity in the Washington, D.C. area, the U.S. Congress passes the Washington Airport Act of 1950. A 10,000-acre site in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties is selected and planning begins for the new Dulles International Airport. The engineering firm Ammann and Whitney coordinates planning and construction. Finnish born and trained at Yale University, Eero Saarinen is chosen to design the iconic passenger terminal. Construction begins in 1958 and takes six years to complete.

Saarinen’s design is the first facility designed with modern jet travel in mind. His philosophy of “the Style for the job” allows the nature of a project to dictate the architectural style. Hoping to convey “the soul of the airport,” the architect’s elliptical Modernist form appears to lift-off, dramatically conveying the building’s funtion as an international travel gateway. Saarinen believes his design is “the best thing I have ever done.” In 1966 the terminal building is awarded AIA’s First Honor Award.[/timeline_event]