Soul to Soul

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The following is special programming sponsored by Public Radio KUNV 91.5. The content of Soul2Soul does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz & More, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Soul to Soul, universal ideas for a brighter tomorrow.

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This show is a free for all of positive energy that will include book discussions, music, I do politics, books, food, COVID-19, oral interviews, books, and Las Vegas history. Today, my show is with two people that I'm going to introduce. I'll start with Melvin Green. Melvin Green, after graduating from Louisiana Tech University with a bachelor's degree in architecture, 1980, 1980, started his internship with the Home Maintenance Corporation in New Haven, Connecticut. There he learned the humanistic approach to architectural design, to design for the people. 1983, he was recruited to work here in Nevada for Holmes and Norrell, Incorporated and later Raytheon Services Nevada, designing support facilities for the stealth fighter program at the Tonopah test range. In 1995, he founded Melvin Green Architect Limited here in Las Vegas. Melvin has been designing products and projects for over 30 years. So he has extensive experience in every facet of architectural design and sustainability, including a vast amount of international experience gained while working at various hotels and casino projects in Macau, China. In 2009, he helped establish KME Architects here in Las Vegas. So he is now, of course, a full-service architectural firm behind him. My other guest is Carmen Beals. Carmen serves as an associate curator and outreach director with the Nevada Museum of Art Las Vegas. In her role as the outreach director for Las Vegas, the museum's first African-American director. She is responsible for assisting the museum to expand its resources and educational offerings throughout the state. She also serves as a committee co-chair for the Nevada Museums Diversity Committee. She holds an MLA in Museum Studies from Harvard University Extension, an MBA from Alberton University. and has a BS in civil engineering from Perryview A&M University. My God, these people, I could just talk about them all day without even getting into my subject matter. But we are here because we are going to talk about a couple of things. Paul R. Williams was an architect projects here in Las Vegas. We're going to talk about him and we're going to talk about an exhibit that Carmen is putting together for the Museum of Art and we can say Museum of Art Las Vegas but she's going to do two. One in Reno

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and one here in Las Vegas. So let's get

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Oh, thank you for being here. So who is Paul Williams? Tell me about him as the man and the architect. Anybody, either of you can start. How do you want to do this?

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Ladies first. Carmen, go right ahead. That sounds great. Well, Paul Revere Williams was an amazing African-American architect who was born in Los Angeles, California in 1894. At the age of three, he became an orphan, losing his mother and father to tuberculosis. And during that time, his adopted parents really saw that he had an artistic expression that they wanted to continue to inspire. He moved on despite racial tensions to become an architect, and he designed iconic commercial and residential properties such as the Beverly Hills Hotel. He served as the master designer for the Los Angeles Airport and he became affectionately known as the architect to the stars, designing homes for Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant,

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Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz. Here in Nevada, he's designed several properties that we will get into shortly. Wonderful. One of the other things that Mr. William is known for is that he's designed over 3,000 buildings and that is truly amazing. He is one of or is the century. And one other fascinating thing about it is when when he designed the projects he would often have to sketch upside down in order not to offend the wealthy clients by sitting next to them. And that is really sad that he had to endure all of that but Paul had an enduring spirit. He was very courageous and he spoke out about the racial barriers. And one other interesting thing is that he was the first African-American architect to join the American Institute of Architects, which I am a member now as well. So he paved the way for a lot of us. Melvin, let's talk about some of the things that he designed here in Las

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Vegas. What is your favorite building that you've had time to look at and

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study a bit? Well I think there's several buildings. One is the the hotel that he designed, I think the La Concha Hotel, and I think that is a very fascinating building because to me it's an upside-down shell. And so he used parabolic arches to emphasize light getting into the building. And so that was very fascinating to me to see him put together a building that to me is also organic as well. So after saying all those big words that he did, tell us where we can see that building that you're talking about. Well, this building is actually the lobby area for the Boneyard, which is located on Las Vegas Boulevard, just north of Bonanza. So the Neon Museum, that lobby. That's correct.

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All right. So you can see his work. So Carmen, what is your favorite building that he designed here in Las Vegas? Or can you tell us about a couple of them? Well a couple of them, one of my favorites that I consider close to me personally is the Berkeley Square subdivision, a suburb. It was the first African-American middle comfort of a home. This was very personal to Paul because he wanted to provide better accommodations for families. His granddaughter states that this may have been a huge concern because of the loss of his family at such a young age. The Berkeley Square is located in the historic west side, and it consists of approximately 148 homes, and it sits on 22 acres of land and was sponsored by the Veterans Administration. The individuals that owned those homes, they were generation handed down. A lot of them were handed down from generation to generation, and they kept them in such great condition that they were eventually listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 2009. I think that is so exciting and and there are a few places in Berkeley Square that need some tender loving care. I want us to somehow find monies for those families that need help with that tender loving care. Monies that they don't actually have to pay back is what I'd love to see. So I want to talk about my favorite place. Well I like Carver Park. So the first thing that he designed, World War II in the early 1940s, I like it because have you seen the photograph? to have something that looked wonderful. And when I look at those pictures, and it's all torn down. It's all torn down now. Carmen and I drove out the other day, and it's just a slab. Yes. Oh my god. It's just a slab. I was so disappointed, and she was so positive. Carmen was saying, oh, but at least there's something left. I was saying, yes, but it's not enough. So Carmen and I are going back. And we're going back to talk to the people in the area

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just to see the possibilities of putting a marker there.

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That would be lovely.

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So any other places that either of you would like to mention, a place that other people may have seen and may want to go back now and look at?

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Well, the Guardian Angel Cathedral. It's a church that was opened in 1964. But to go back a little bit, in 1961, land was donated to construct this church so it could be used by strip workers and tourists. It seats approximately 1,100 guests and it was originally named the Guardian Angel Shrine. Some of its most extinguishing architectural features include the beautiful windows, murals, mosaic, and its fabulous A-frame designs. In 1977, it was then elevated to its current name,

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Guardian Angel Cathedral, by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas. It's a very extraordinary building because it has that spiritual presence, and with that A-frame design and those same windows, I mean it brings just, you know, you're closer to God. And so Paul And you mentioned that I started working in New Haven, Connecticut for the people. You want something that is functional, but also you want to have something that's attractive. They deserve that, as people who might not be able to afford a hotel, but they can have their own little sanctuary. Wonderful. And of course I have to put something in there that we may not want to even associate with the is that person who commissioned that building. So Moe Dalis, you can look him up. I won't even say who he is. OK, so let's move on, because, Melvin, you just said something really important. You talked about your philosophy about designing buildings. black and brown students in the field. It has to do with exposure, really. They're not exposed to professionals like architects, engineers. And so one of the ways that and this is a great segue, because I have to say this really quickly. Clay T knows my history and she knows where I came from because I was interviewed by her for the oral library. So she has all my life in a digital form somewhere. I just have to step back just one quick second. And I grew up in northern Louisiana in 1957. So that's why I relate to Paul a lot is because I grew up in segregation. I wasn't allowed to go to the swimming pool, the library. I started working when I was six years old in the cotton fields. My mom had a seventh grade education. My aunts couldn't read or write, but I had a talent and I think Paul had that same talent. He was able to draw. And so when they say it takes a village to raise someone, well my village was my mom, my pastor, the teachers, and they gave me the opportunity and steered me along that way to be an architect because they saw the talent. So I want to be able to have that same legacy to give back to my community. And one of the ways I'm doing that now, I am the chairman of the JEDI committee for the AIA Las Vegas American Institute of Architects. So that means justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. And so my task is to promote this philosophy throughout the architecture community and also to out through the neighborhood. And so what I am I am pledging to do is to help under served and underrepresented kids in the Las Vegas Valley to become architects. So what we want to do is we want to start this pipeline from sixth grade all the way up through college. And we want to be able to pull them along the way and meet with them and show them what is required because there are so many brilliant kids out there that they just need a little nudge, a little push. So we're looking to do that. We're trying to fundraise for a hip-hop architecture program, and I mentioned it to you guys about that. This hip-hop architecture program was established by Mike Ford about four to five years ago. He's a Detroit architect. He had the vision to marry hip-hop and architecture together. So my goal is to bring a hip-hop architecture camp to Las Vegas next summer for a hundred kids and they'll learn how to design buildings based on the lyrics and the music. Wow, how can we help? Yes. I need a fund, I need money. Okay, let's see who we know. Yeah, absolutely, because what it will do is will engage the kids. relate to them on their level. I think hip-hop music is a way of doing that. And to end up the camp, they have an opportunity to do a hip-hop video about their work. And if you get a chance, go to www.hiphoparchitecture.com. And then the last thing is that we have promotional videos to engage our students in the Clark County School District. So we have four promotional videos that we put together that will emphasize architecture. Two of the videos stars my grandkids because we want them to be architects. So they are. They're architects. They're talking about interior design. They're talking about projects. So those are available on the AIA Las Vegas website and Facebook page. Wow. So that's what we're trying to do. I am so excited because when I asked that question, I had no idea. Yes. So Carmen I don't know how you're going to follow that but I want you to talk about there's an upcoming exhibit of Paul R Williams, so I want you to tell us about that and when we are to expect it and just talk about it

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Okay. Well just to give you a little background with the Nevada Museum of Art. It's located right now in Reno, Nevada, and we focus on art related to land, environment, and education. And this Paul Revere Williams exhibition will actually commission Miss Jonna Ireland, who is a nationally acclaimed photographer, to photograph the exhibition. And she's going throughout the state, which includes areas in Reno, Dyer, Lovelock, and here in Southern Nevada, taking photographs that will be featured first in the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, starting in August, 2022. And then it will come to the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, where it will start in November 2022 and run through May 2023. And that's intentional so that all of our CCSD students and educators can come and visit it throughout the remainder of the school year.

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Wow. So tell me, we thought that we had mislocated or lost a lot of Paul Reveal Williams' drawings and manuscripts and all of that, his architectural library. But tell me about that. How did we find it? What happened?

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His granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson, actually inherited all of his artifacts. She just sold them to the Getty and USC. And so they haven't even gone into them to explore them due to COVID, but we cannot wait to get that information. And in order to preserve this information and whatever's coming out, the Nevada Museum of Art also has a microsite that will be up within the next two months that will be able to preserve and keep all of this so that individuals that continue to do research will be able to have a reference point for further discussion.

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Oh, I love it. I love that. Thanks. That we have this rich material and it's so close to us. Yes.

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We can just run over to Los Angeles anytime.

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I know, it's fabulous.

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So, Melvin, you just talked about the students and we were really, really all excited about that. Now, we have an architectural school here at UNLV. Do you work in any ways with the school? Why don't we have more students here right now already?

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Well, out of 115,000 registered architects in the U.S., only 5% are minority. And I think 2% are African-American and even less for African-American women. So I think it needs to be an awareness. I do spend a little bit of time, not a whole lot, because as a small architecture firm, we're looking to do is to be more aggressive with the students coming out of grade school and preparing them to be able to be that pipeline for the next five to ten years. So we have a plan for 2035 is to have that gap shortened. And so in that, and the way we do it is we start with our sixth graders and we go up. So with that in mind, I'm sort of starting with the younger generation and try to get them going. But I do have a Zoom meeting every three weeks with several of the things that they're going to encounter when they're out of school. Because we're looking for intern architects who know certain software programs and be able to function in an office. So we're giving them heads up prior to them graduating from college as well.

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So did you study Paul R. Williams in architecture school? No. So is he part of the curriculum now?

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I'm not sure. I'm not sure of that, but I never studied Paul. What happened is I learned through opmosis, just realizing that, because you gotta understand where I came from. There were no major architects there, period. And so I pretty much had to learn on my own. And that comes to what Paul did because of his tenacity, his perseverance. So he was able to do a lot of things. People don't understand that he's not just doing architecture for just one style. He learned many styles of architecture. And I have to do the same. I have to be able to change and not just be focused on one form of architecture. We do a lot of projects in Las Vegas from educational convention centers, arenas, housing. We do everything. So we're not just focused on one form of architecture. So because we talked about Berkeley Square being on the West Side neighborhood, that historic West Side, tell me what the work that you did on the West Side School. Wow, we did the actual remodel of the West Side School. We won a national award. Well, we won a regional award first, and then we won a national award. We beat out all the architects in the U.S. for projects, historic projects, renovation for them, between $12 million. So we won that award, and we were very, very happy about that. But it's about trying to repurpose that building for the people who were students there. And so we had stakeholders meetings and we were able to pull out all of the things that they wanted for that building meeting rooms. If you go out there, you can see there's an outdoor area so we can have farmers markets. We can do all of the things like concerts and there's a porch too. Now I grew up in northern Louisiana and a lot of people from Fort Ice, Arkansas and Tallulah, Louisiana, and we love our porches. And so the Westside School does have a porch out there as well. So it's about understanding what the needs of the community is. We've done Booker Elementary School. We've done Wendell P. Williams Elementary School, Rainbow Dreams Academy. So we've done a lot of projects over there. And we just recently got awarded the West Las Vegas Library as well. So we'll be working on that, too. Oh, congratulations.

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Yes, congratulations. Carmen, help me close this out. So I'm going to ask both of you to just give me some closing remarks. Anything else about your exhibit? Anything else about the work you do with the Museum of Art? Because we never think of the Museum of Art Las Vegas.

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We always think of it as Reno.

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Right.

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So what should we know about it for Las Vegas? Well one of the most popular things that you may know is that we are the co-producers of Seven Magic Mountains and it's the largest art installation, one of the largest art installations in the world with 1,000 visitors per day. And we have also expanded our education program to K to 12 teachers within the Clark County School District and we are the oldest private cultural institution in Nevada celebrating 90 years. And for the exhibition we are really hoping that we will be able to invite individuals just as Melvin stated including the Jedi Academy. They can have their own. Yes. to my left, who is our spokesperson, this amazing gentleman over to my right, who is Kate with KME Architects, LGA Architects, and the National Panhellenic Council, which is developed. It consists of all of the African American fraternities and sororities of which Paul Realbear Williams is a part of. And together we hope to bring visibility to this amazing exhibition so that we can expose kids to art and art history and the love of architecture.

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Yes.

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Wonderful. Yes, that is amazing. So we have two more minutes. Melvin, it's yours.

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All right. Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me on Soul to Soul. My biggest hope is to encourage all of the underprivileged, underrepresented kids to follow your dreams. Build your own legacy through hard work, determination, and style, just like Mr. Paul Revere Williams did throughout his entire life. And lastly, but not least, is to never doubt yourself. Never doubt your abilities. Be the best that you can. Thank you.

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Thank you so much. Thank you, Clayton. Oh, you're welcome. So this is Soul to Soul Universal Ideas for a Brighter Tomorrow. We meet here on 4th Sunday mornings at 830. This is the show that is a free-for-all of positive energy that will include book discussions, music, politics, books, food, COVID-19, oral interviews, books, and Las Vegas history. Thank you for joining me.

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I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to be doing a lot of work on this. so so Bye for now.

Transcribed with Cockatoo