This week we've hand-picked five of the most promising opportunities on Dezeen Jobs, including vacancies at interior architecture studio Johnson Naylor and architecture firm David Chipperfield Architects.

Senior designer at Johnson Naylor

Interior architecture firm Johnson Naylor is looking for an interior designer to join its studio in London. The practice recently converted a world war two pumping station into a holiday home on Dungeness beach in England's Kent.

Browse all roles for designers

3D visualiser at David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects has completed the London outpost of art gallery Bastien, featuring an exhibition space, private showroom and small office. The firm has a vacancy for a 3D visualiser to join its team in London.

View all visualisation jobs

Project architect at Coop Himmelb(l)au

Coop Himmelb(l)au is searching for a project architect to develop design concepts at its Vienna office in Austria. The studio completed the Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition, a huge curved art complex in China's Shenzhen.

See more project architect opportunities

Architects at Allies and Morrison

Allies and Morrison has created a masterplan for Madinat Al Irfan, a new city in Oman which will be transformed from a desert valley into a 624-hectare urban centre. The studio is recruiting for architects at its London office with experience across the masterplanning, commercial, residential and mixed-use sectors.

View all architecture positions

Furniture/industrial designer at Starck Network Agency

Starck Network Agency has an opening for a furniture/industrial designer at its practice in London. French designer Philippe Starck has collaborated with luxury car brand Bently to create a smart power dock for the vehicle manufacturer's new Bentayga Hybrid model.

See more industrial design roles

See all the latest architecture and design roles on Dezeen Jobs

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The top architecture and design roles this week include positions at Johnson Naylor and David Chipperfield Architects - Dezeen

The four American men who played a key role in shaping the so-called Deal of the Century have a history of speaking the language of Israel's far-right, showing complete indifference toward the plight of Palestinians.

As US President Donald Trump announced the 'Deal of the Century' on the long-standing Israeli-Palestine conflict last week, the president - facing his own impeachment trial - failed to evoke any positive response both from Palestine and the international community.

The deal was doomed to fail for many reasons, ranging from its false premise to the absence of Palestinian leaders who snubbed the move outright. Another reason why the deal came across as a hoax was down to its key architects: Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner; pro-Zionist American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson; war hawk Mike Pence; and the US ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, a strong supporter of Israeli settlement construction.

With arbiters like those, the trajectory of US policy towards the Palestinians, already deferential to Israeli interests, lost whatever little semblance of partiality was left.

Here's a quick look at the deal's four architects Kushner, Adelson, Pence and Friedman and their controversial positions on the question of Palestine's future.

Jared Kushner

Born in 1981 in New Jersey, Kushner is the grandson of Joseph Kushner who was a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Novogrudok, Belarus.

He grew up in New Jersey's Orthodox Jewish community and attended Jewish schools that drew parallels between Judaism and Zionism.

Kushner's classmates were expected to draw maps of Israel without consulting any books or notes, just from memory, and they often identified West Bank by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria, an expression Zionist leaders use to lay claim to the Arab lands.

In 2003, Kushner graduated from Harvard University and reports emerged that his father donated $2.5 million to boost his son's chances, a charge his family denies.

He came under the spotlight in 2007, the year when he married Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump. By 2016, Kushner was helping his father-in-law to become the US president, managing his online campaign. Ever since he has played an important role in shaping America's foreign policy, taking a central role in 'resolving' the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Kushner has previously come under criticism over his murkybusiness dealings and links with far-right Christian evangelical groups. In 2017, 10 evangelical leaders issued statements in support of Kushner, describing him and his wife as an example of God to use a young Jewish couple to help Christians.

After Trump unveiled his notorious Palestine deal, Kushner defended it, disregarding underlying political questions of territorial control and Palestinian sovereignty. In a TV interview, he bragged about reading '25 books' on Israel and Palestine, a claim that came across as a desperate attempt to establish some kind of authority over the subject. He was also condescending and racist as per some observers towards Palestinians, as he claimed they are "going to screw up another opportunity, like theyve screwed up every other opportunity that theyve ever had in their existence.

As the US elections draw close, it seems Trump wants to keep enjoying Evangelicals support as he did before, when he received more than 80 percent of his votes from the group following his promise to become Israels best friend during his campaign.

Since the beginning of his presidency, Trump has taken several actions against Palestine. His Israel-centred policies are the combination of Christian supremacy and Evangelism, following his decision to appoint Kushner as the Senior Middle East Advisor tasked with creating a so-called peace plan between Israel and Palestine - a move overwhelmingly supported by the US evangelists.

Sheldon Adelson

Growing up in Boston, Adelson was the son of a cab driver with sixth-grade education. As his wife claims, he was beaten up for being Jewish when he was a child. He is an entrepreneur who started more than 50 businesses and lost his fortune in the late 1960s when he was in his thirties

In the mid-1990s, he became extraordinarily rich when in 1995 he sold the pioneering computer trade show Comdex to the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank for $800 million and started business in gambling by opening his Venetian casino resort in 1999 in Las Vegas.

He saw former president Barack Obama as a threat and spent $150 million in a futile attempt to unseat the socialist and anti-Israel president in the 2012 elections. It was not enough just to back Newt Gingrich.

However, in 2016, the Las Vegas billionaire donated $82m towards both Trumps and other Republican campaigns and his views, including his remarkably staunch support for Netanyahu has become the official US line.

His commitment allowed him to push for the appointment of Bolton as national security adviser which would be an important step towards killing the nuclear deal with Iran. As the New York Times reported, he became a member of shadow National Security Council.

Consequently, following Trumps announcement about the US decision to pull out of the Iran agreement, he was reported to have held a private meeting at the White House with Trump alongside Bolton and Pence.

He was also the man who pushed the US to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Adelson was vocally supportive of the move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, he even offered to pay for a new US embassy there. He cheered on the president as details of the new proposal were read out.

Adelsons considerable support for Republicans is in no small part motivated by what he regards as their more reliable support for the policies of Netanyahu, which appear intent on preventing the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Mike Pence

The vice president of the US, said: "Israel's enemies are our enemies, Israel's cause is our cause. If this world knows nothing else, let it know this: America stands with Israel".

Pence used to work as a lawyer and became governor of the Hoosier State in 2013. He describes himself as a pretty ordinary Christian, a conservative and a Republican. He also said: "I made a commitment to Christ. I'm a born-again, evangelical Catholic."

He grew up in an Irish Catholic family and he and his family attended Grace Evangelical Church in the 1990s.

Trump chose him as the vice president as he believed that Pence has a strong pro-Israel sentiment which would help him strengthen his relations with Jewish voters.

In 2009, he stated his support for Israel and said: "Let me say emphatically, like the overwhelming majority of my constituents, my Christian faith compels me to cherish the state of Israel."

David M. Friedman

Prior to becoming the US ambassador to Israel, Friedman, 60, was Trumps top bankruptcy lawyer. He's well known for supporting the illegal Israeli settlements on the Palestinian lands, a position that makes him radically tilted in favour of Israel and blemishes his role as an independent arbitor in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Unlike previous American ambassadors, who avoided making public appearances in East Jerusalem, Friedman attended a business conference held at an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an act that was seen as a major diplomatic transgression by a top American official.

Friedman has even shown his disregard toward the Oslo Accords, an agreement that leaves Jerusalem to be negotiated by Palestinians and Israel, strongly rejecting any unilateral move on the future of the city.

Source: TRT World

See the rest here:
Why the architects of Trump's Palestine deal were inherently biased - TRT World

The following is republished from The Paul R. Williams Project. For an expanded timeline complete with events from material history and society happening concurrent to milestones in the architect's life, refer to the extended version here.

Learn more about the remarkable life of Paul R. Williams on "Hollywood's Architect"

In the course of his five-decade career, Paul Revere Williams, an African American architect born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1894, overcame prejudice and designed thousands of buildings; served on many municipal, state and federal commissions; was active in political and social organizations; and earned the admiration and respect of his peers. In 1957, he was the first African American elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. The path he has forged has served as an inspiration for young architects to this day. Learn more about the man and events that shaped his life in this timeline.

Paul Williams' father, Chester Stanley Williams, works at the original Peabody Hotel at the corner of Main and Monroe as a waiter from 1884 through 1893.

Chester S. Williams, Paul R. Williams' father, opens a confectionery shop with John Brame at 163 Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. A confectionery store sells sweet foods, including candy, cakes, pastries, candy fruits and ice cream.

Today Abe Schwab's, a dry goods store, is located at 163 Beale Street.

That same year Chester Stanley Williams and Lila A. Wright are married on February 25 in Avery Chapel, A.M.E. Church, Memphis.

Paul R. Williams' parents, Chester and Lila, move to Los Angeles with Paul's older brother, Chester Stanley Williams, Jr. His parents open a fruit stand on Olvera Street. (L.A. Times, February 28, 1993) Olvera Street is one of the oldest sections of downtown Los Angeles.

A view down Olvera Street | Security Pacific National Bank Photo Collection, the Los Angeles Public Library

Chester S. Williams is listed in the Los Angeles city directory as a waiter living at 842 Santee Street. Paul R. Williams is born at the Santee Street home on February 18, 1894.

Chester S. Williams, Paul's father, dies in 1896 when Williams is two years old. His mother dies two years later in 1898, leaving Williams and his brother orphans.

The 1898 Los Angeles city directory lists Lila Williams as living at 1405 Silver Street and working as a dressmaker.

When he is six years old, Williams attends Sentous Avenue Grammar School on Pico Boulevard. He writes about this school later in his life and says that he is the only African American student in his class.

In the 1900 U.S. Census, Los Angeles is ranked 36th in the nation based on population. Slightly more than 102,000 residents live in Los Angeles, and of that number, only 3,131 are Negroes.

As a comparison, Neyland Stadium at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, seats 102,000.

The 1910 census data lists Paul R. Williams living with Emily P. Clarkson at 784 E. 15th Street in Los Angeles. Clarkson is later variously described as Williams' foster mother, godmother or guardian.

In a 1970 interview with Maggie Savoy, L.A. Times' Women's Editor, Williams describes Charles Clarkson as his foster father. The First A.M.E. Church dedication stone (Williams is a life-long member of the church) lists "C. I. Clarkson" as a trustee in 1903. This church elder may be the same Clarkson who fosters the orphaned, four-year-old Paul R. Williams.

In 1963, Williams contributes design plans for a new building for the church at 25th and LaSalle.

First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles | Laurie Avocado / Wikicommons

A young Paul Revere Williams | Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

In June 1912, Paul R. Williams graduates with a class of 174 students from Polytechnic High School, Los Angeles. Polytechnic High School is described in a June 21 Los Angeles Times (1912) article as "the acme of present-day high school educational results."

For the next four years, he pursues a self-directed education studying architecture and improving his skills. As a member of the Los Angeles Architectural Club, he participates in the training and competitions offered through the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects (1913-1916); he studies architecture at the University of Southern California (1916-1919); he works as an apprentice in the offices of local architects and landscape designers.

By 1913, Paul R. Williams is working in the firm of landscape architect/city planner Wilbur D. Cook, Jr. where he gains experience in integrating house and garden design plans. Cook's ideas influence Williams' designs and are evident in the extensive landscaping for the 1926 Baird/Stewart/Garza House.

Cook is known for his landscaping work in Southern California, including the original gardens at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the City Park in Anaheim now Pearson Park and Irving Gill's Dodge House. Cook recognizes Williams' superior drafting and drawing skills when he assigns him the task of creating the hand-drawn perspective sketches for the park in Anaheim.

Baird/Stewart/Garza House, Glendale, CA. 2010 | David Horan for the Paul R. Williams Project at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis

After working with Cook, Williams writes that he works for Reginald Davis Johnson from 1914 to 1917. (1942 AIA document) Johnson, a Pasadena architect, is noted for designing luxury homes. His revival residential designs with patios, loggias and courtyards aim to create a "true California style" appropriate to the climate and way of life. (California Southland, Sept. 26, 1926) Williams' work is influenced by these ideas.

In an interview, Williams remembers his early career with Johnson. "The first thing he did was put me on a $100,000 home in Santa Barbara. I'd never been in a house that cost more than $10,000. I couldn't guess how a person could spend that much money. I soon found out." (Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1970)

Williams is certified as a building contractor in 1915 and can build small projects. The California State Board of Architectural Examiners is the agency that maintains these records today, but the agency existed under a different name and mission in 1915. (Wesley Howard Henderson's unpublished research)

William studies architectural engineering at the University of Southern California from 1916 through 1919.

Designs Commercial Building

In the March 30 issue of Los Angeles Builder and Contractor (later known as Southwest Builder and Contractor), Williams is listed as the designer for a two-story commercial building on South Los Angeles Street. Louis M. Blodgett, a successful African American millionaire, is the builder. Paul Williams later builds both of Blodgett's homes in 1922 and 1953.

Registers for the Draft

On June 5, 1917, Williams registers for the U.S. military draft. He self-reports that he is an architectural draftsman working for Reginald Johnson.

Marries and Begins Work for Arthur Kelly

Williams marries Della Mae Givens on June 27, 1917. Della supports his career by "providing him with a comfortable setting in which he could visualize, create and turn his ideas into structures." (Los Angeles Sentinel, August 8, 1996) The Williams become a "power" couple on the social and philanthropic scene of Los Angeles.

He begins working with Arthur Kelly, whose design practice specializes in hotels, residences and public buildings. Williams works for Kelly from 1917 to 1921. (AIA papers) An example of Kelly's work is the dormitory at Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles. Playboy Mansion West, Hugh Hefner's Los Angeles residence, is another of Kelly's designs.

Enters 2nd White Pine Architectural Competition

Williams submits an entry to a national competition sponsored by the influential White Pine Monograph Series to design a house for $12,500. He doesn't win a prize, but his entry is published in an issue of The Independent, one of the first national publications to reproduce his work. Williams' design entry is described in the article as an "unsymmetrical plan ... with picturesque exterior ... Practicability has not been sacrificed to make the design interesting."

White Pine Architectural Competition

Williams wins a Mention in 1918 for his design for a Lakeside Home in a national competition sponsored by the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs. In 1919, he enters the same competition with plans for a Community Centre Building. This design receives Special Mention by the panel of judges. "... it is an expression of a Community Center Group, has the charm of a New England town, and the Community Building is unmistakably a wooden structure."

Renderings for both winning entries are published in the Monograph Series and can be seen in the Gallery.

Paul R. Williams' simple, compact and "well thought out" entry for the Hollow Tile House Competition is awarded first place by a panel of important regional architects, including John C. Austin. The judges write that Williams' superior renderings, tasteful exterior treatment and lack of "useless ornaments" contribute to the ease and economy of construction. His landscape design fits with Southern California conditions and extends the usable living space.

At 25 years of age, Williams lives at 784 E. 15th in Los Angeles with wife Della and Emily P. Clarkson, who is listed as his godmother in the 1920 U.S. census. Williams describes his occupation as "draftsman at an architect's office." He soon moves to 1271 West 35th Street a modest home in the black community of South Central Los Angeles where he lives for 30 years.

In 1920, he is appointed to the L.A. City Planning Commission by the 23rd Mayor of Los Angeles (Meredith P. Snyder) and serves on the commission until 1928. The city is changing dramatically with the railroads connecting Los Angeles to the rest of the nation. Land is cheap and abundant. Unlike cities in the East that accommodate growth with taller buildings, Los Angeles can spread out. The L.A. leaders want to plan for the city's future growth with a planning commission.

In January 1921, the Southern Chapter of AIA names the periodical Southwest Builder & Contractor as the official publication for public announcements. The June 1921 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor lists Paul R. Williams's official certification to practice architecture in California. Williams later becomes a registered architect in the District of Columbia, New York and Tennessee. (AIA Directory 1960)

Also in 1921, Williams begins work in John C. Austin's architectural firm where he works until 1924. Austin's firm is known for large public and commercial projects. The Shrine Civic Auditorium and Hollywood Masonic Temple (1922 Timeline Architecture) are projects in Austin's firm during the years of Williams' employment. Williams describes his position in Austin's office as draftsman.

Shrine Civic Auditorium exterior. 1939 | Works Progress Administration Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Early commissions for wealthy clients

Flintridge, named for and developed by Senator Frank Putnam Flint, is a wealthy, segregated suburb near Pasadena. Williams designs scores of homes in this upscale community, including this house for Katherine Flint, the Senator's widow. (It is a smaller version of the couple's original residence.) In later interviews, Williams remembers his professional relationship with the Senator, I got my start doing better homes ... from him." (Los Angeles Times. October 11, 1970) Eventually, he designs at least ten spec homes in the Flintridge area, and "the development has one of the greatest concentrations of Paul Williams' houses" in the region. (Personal communications, Tim Gregory, noted regional architectural historian, 2013)

The Louis Cass residence in Flintridge is typically described as Williams' first significant residential project for a wealthy white client. His biographies link the two men as high school classmates, but current research does not support this. Williams attended Polytechnic High School and graduated in 1912. Cass was an athletic star at Los Angeles High School, according to local newspaper accounts. After two years at Stanford University, he was named captain of the football team. (Los Angeles Times, November 27, 1911, and August 8, 1913) Cass becomes a successful insurance executive and is one of the founders of the Automobile Club of Southern California. In 1954, Williams designs a ranch house for Cass and his wife Virginia in Temecula, California.

Despite warnings that the African American community is not large or wealthy enough to support an architect, Williams finds work in this growing segment of society. After acquiring his architectural license, he begins to make important connections, including African American businessman Louis M. Blodgett. Blodgett, a Los Angeles entrepreneur with interests in construction, real estate, insurance and the funeral industry, hires the young architect to design a home in 1922 (and later in 1953). In 1924 Williams designs the Second Baptist Church one of the first major construction projects in the Central Ave area of Los Angeles.

Wins Special Mention in Small House Competition

In 1923, the Community Arts Association of Santa Barbara sponsors one of the earliest small house competitions in the United States. The cost to build the house could not exceed $5,000. Williams receives a "Special Mention" for his meritorious design. The judges note his creative placement of a fireplace on the outside terrace. Eight years later, Williams' entry is published in a catalog available nationwide of small house plans.

Williams joins AIA and opens an office

In 1923, Williams is notified by the Executive Secretary of American Institute of Architects (AIA), the national organization, of his election to membership. The Southern California Chapter of AIA elects Williams as an Associate member on September 30, 1922 a prerequisite for National AIA membership. He is the first known African American member in AIA.

In the 1962 AIA Directory, Williams writes that he opens Paul R. Williams & Associates in the Stock Exchange Building in downtown Los Angeles. He continues working for John C. Austin until he establishes his own client base.

Monrovia, California Administrative Group

Williams' and Milton W. Nigg's proposal for a group of administrative buildings is selected by the Monrovia Trustees from a number of competing proposals. Their winning rendering illustrates a complex of mission-style buildings with red tile roofs and stucco walls set in a park of mature oak trees covering a half block. (This particular architectural style is a popular choice for public buildings and private residences in Southern California throughout the 1920s.) The Monrovia Administrative Group is one of Williams' earliest successes for a large scale public complex.

The initial phase of the Administrative Group (Fire Department and Hall of Justice/Police Department/Jail buildings) is completed in February 1925. The swimming pool, bathhouse, tennis courts and athletic fields open later in the same year.

Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles

The Second Baptist Church, the first African American Baptist church in Los Angeles, opens its new facility in L.A.'s Central Avenue area. The building is designed by Williams and Norman F. Marsh, the official architect of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church pastor insists that all workmen constructing the church are from African American-owned businesses.

Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, CA. 2010 | David Horan for the Paul R. Williams Project at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis

Designs for a Small Brick House Published

In 1925, the American Face Brick Association publishes the sixth edition of their The Home of Beauty: Designs for a Small Brick House. The book is a collection of "well rendered" and "meritorious" small house designs the professional group hopes will inspire and educate consumers and contractors to improve the quality of new American single-family homes. They also hope the competition and their publication will encourage a growing middle-class consumer to consider brick when building a residence.

A panel of well-known architects selects the best design ideas from a field of 400 entries submitted for competition by architects and architectural draftsmen from across the country. (The competition is coordinated by the professional journal Architectural Forum, formerly The Brickbuilder and the Committee on Competitions of the American Institute of Architects.) Though Williams' entry for a "simple cottage" is not selected as one of the finalists, his rendering for House, No. 150 is deemed worthy of inclusion in the 1925 publication. The editor's description of the Williams design recommends clients and builders chose a northeast-facing site "thereby providing morning sun in the dining room and a pleasant exposure for the living room and garden."

A note in the book's introduction states that working drawings/specifications and a list of materials are available to anyone for a $25 fee with proof that a "competent builder or contractor" had been secured.

Designs a Public School

It is announced in the Los Angeles Times that Williams is preparing plans for a two-story brick grammar school. This school at 1314 South Dacotah Street opens in 1926.

28th Street YMCA is completed

Williams' design for the 28th Street YMCA in the Central Avenue area of Los Angeles includes Spanish Colonial red clay roof tiles, a row of arched windows on the second-floor and smooth stucco finish. Bas-relief panels with busts of African American heroes, including Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass provide decorative detail in terra cotta with vines and scrolls. In 2011, it was decided by the Coalition for Responsible Community Development and Clifford Beers Housing that the building would receive a badly-needed renovation from Koning Eizenberg Architecture. The building rechristened as the 28th Street Apartments now has 49 affordable housing units and a 5-story addition behind the original structure. Williams design was preserved as much as possible, but a few elements were added to honor it, such as a figure of Williams himself on the first floor, a nod to the buildings original bas-reliefs of notable African Americans on the fourth-floor windows. The renovation has earned several awards for its environmentally-friendly design and commitment to preserving the original structure.

The 28th Street Apartments | Courtesy of Eric Staudenmaier/Koning Eizenberg Architecture

Home designs in L.A. duplicated elsewhere

In an article in the Los Angeles Times (July 24, 1927), Williams describes instances where visitors to the city see his home designs and want to build a duplicate home. "The Spanish homes built here are usually a wonderful improvement on their prototypes in Europe, a thing that is generally admitted by visitors here from Spain."

Williams is known throughout his professional career as one of the best California practitioners of revival-styling. His residential architecture in the Spanish Colonial style, as reflected in the Baird/Stewart/Garza house, is highly prized by upscale modern homebuyers in Los Angeles.

Continues to receive commissions for Flintridge estates

John Bishop Green hires Williams to design a large weekend home, including the latest "modern" conveniences electric refrigeration and automatic water heaters.

Los Angeles Times (June 5, 1927) describes this new residence in Flintridge as a project by "Paul Williams, one of Southern California's best-known architects."

Hollywood YMCA

Williams' firm is hired in 1927 to expand and improve the Hollywood YMCA. Williams' building opens in 1928. Similar to the 28th Street YMCA, this building is considered a Spanish Colonial Revival with ceramic and terra-cotta interior decorative details. Unlike 28th Street Y, there is only one main entrance. Williams reconsiders the users circulation within the building allowing the managers more flexibility and encouraging members to participate in different activities.

YMCA Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA. 2010 | David Horan for the Paul R. Williams Project at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis

Williams continues to design homes for wealthy during the Great Depression

Katherine Peachy hires Williams to design her house in Hancock Park a development for wealthy Angelenos. Some of Williams' original design details could not be executed until 1933. Many building projects are down-sized because of the Great Depression.

Atkin Residence

Jack P. Atkin moves into his luxurious 12,000 square-foot home, designed by Williams, in 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression. Atkin asks the architect to design a castle on a hill that would bring back "memories of his childhood in England." The 16-room Tudor Revival-style residence in Pasadena is built of brick with a slate roof. Williams utilizes expensive materials including oak, marble, custom-designed stained and leaded glass, and "In-Vis-O" Roller Screens for windows all at Atkin's request.

Atkin rents the property to movie studios and the house is the setting for the movies Topper (1937) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1937). The famous residence is destroyed in a 2005 fire.

Atkin Residence | Still from "Hollywood's Architect"

Williams designs for Hollywood elite

Hollywood is "depression proof." During the Great Depression, the public goes to the movies to forget their problems and enjoy the luxury of air conditioning. The famous Hollywood sign is erected in 1924 to promote a neighborhood development Hollywood Land. The sign becomes a symbol of glamorous Hollywood.

The Depression slows work for many architects, but Williams' office remains busy. By 1934, Williams completes over 36 residential estates. Many of his clients are important in the movie industry directors, movie stars, producers, set designers, even make-up artists including Otto Preminger, Corrine Griffith, Burt Wheeler, Lon Chaney, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, Charles Correll and Jacob Paley.

Paley Residence exterior with curving driveway. c. 1938 | Courtesy of California State Library, Mott-Merge Collection

In addition to his work on residential estates, Williams designs many of his most memorable commercial projects in this decade: Angelus Funeral Home, Music Corporation of America (MCA) headquarters, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sunset Plaza Apartments. He also begins a life-long relationship with Howard University.

Saks Fifth Avenue on Wilshire Blvd. c. 1938 | Courtesy of California State Library, Mott-Merge Collection

Thoughts on the Role of Interior Decorators

In an interview in 1970 with the Los Angeles Times' Maggy Savoy, Williams discusses his philosophy of design: "...know when to quit ... People don't always know what they want. It is the architect's job to help them find it, and keep within the bounds of grace."

When starting a project, Williams prefers to employ the ideas of an interior designer early in the process. In his career, Williams works with many important designers and design companies: Harriet Shellenberger, Bullocks of Los Angeles, Frank Baden of Webber Spaulding, Dorothy Draper, Edward F. White, Paul Laszlo & John Luccareni.

Small House Plan Service publishes winning design

In 1923, Paul R. Williams wins honorable mention for his design of a small house entered in a competition sponsored by the Community Arts Association of Santa Barbara. The Community Arts Association is a pioneer in the movement to develop "better standards of small house architecture." Eight years later, his winning entry is included in a catalog of designs published by Theodore A. Koetzil, director of the Small House Plan Service. Koetzil selects the Williams' design for publication in his catalog because "on studying the design today it is found still to hold its position in the first rank...the design is unquestionably good architecture of today." (Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1931)

Williams is active in the community

In 1933, Williams is appointed to the first Los Angeles Housing Commission by Los Angeles Mayor Shaw. He serves on this municipal commission until 1941.

Throughout his life, Williams continues to be active in the community. In 1942, for example, he is named to Citizens' School Committee, a group that "has no other purpose than to bring about the election to the Board of Education the best possible timber." (Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1942) Later in 1942, Williams, along with 43 leading architects, opens an advice service at Mary Louise Schmidt's Architects Building-Materials Exhibit to foster a closer relationship between architects, owners and manufacturers. (Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1942)

More:
Visual Timeline: The Remarkable Life of Paul Revere Williams - KCET

The structural technique also allows for fewer interior columns, affording even larger layouts to the half-floor and full-floor apartments that stack up inside. Juxtaposing the sweeping supports, the floor plans are perfectly square. However, in the amenities areas, those signature curves are omnipresent (Hadid abhorred right angles, once saying the world is not a rectangle). The lobbys ceiling is formed by a series of rounded-edge panels also reflected in the reception desk; on the spa level, a tornado-like spiral stair does double duty as a welcome desk; and the interior pool on level 60 features a waterfall shear wall with a feathered pattern. Also in this top of tower, which is billed as a sort of luxury club/event space with incredible views, the exterior structural supports from each edge come together in the ceiling. Its a seemingly simple solution to an intricate facade and all part of the plan, says Lepine. The building answers the question, How do you achieve visual dynamism or visual complexity with very simple underlying rules?

A bar area.

Where this visual complexity doesnt apply is One Thousand Museums color palette, which focuses solely on contrast between light and dark. Because the white facade, excess of glass, and bright Florida sunlight all contribute to the risk of blinding reflections, the firm chose dark stone floors throughout the lobby and amenities spaces. Dark wood lines the walls and all soft seating is black or gray. Architecturally, the strategy gives the buildings white-colored features more of a visual standout, highlighting its, at times, futuristic lines.

A curvilinear stair in the top of tower alludes to the exoskeleton in Hadids signature design style.

Link:
First Look Inside Zaha Hadid Architects One Thousand Museum in Miami - Architectural Digest

Thomas Jefferson was many things politician and diplomat, naturalist and scientist. Revered as America's third president, he was also the main author of the Declaration of Independence. What's less well-known is his role as an architect who helped shape the look of early America.

That side of Jefferson is getting special attention at the moment with an exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. It illustrates both the brilliance of his vision and what, to many, is an unforgivable blind spot.

The title of the show is "Thomas Jefferson, Architect." Though not a professional architect, he was, said curator and museum director Erik Neil, "one of the most advanced architectural thinkers of his time."

Neil said evidence of Jefferson's influence is how familiar his designs now look. Examining one architectural model, correspondent Brook Silva-Braga said, "This is almost like a clich of a government building now."

"It wasn't then," said Neil. "Jefferson was saying, 'We want to do, like, what the Ancient Romans and what the Ancient Greeks did, because they had the highest form of government and the legislators acted with wisdom.'"

The architecture, he felt, should convey that.

Jefferson's plantation home, Monticello, carried those principles; so did his anonymous submission to a design competition for the White House, which featured a large dome.

"This dome was to have glass windows," said Neil. "It was the most innovative. It was the most advanced. I'm not sure if it actually could've been built."

These models first appeared at an Italian retrospective on Jefferson's architecture. Neil saw that show and wanted to bring it home to Virginia, but realized that was a complicated idea.

Silva-Braga asked, "Would it be going too far to say that you thought that exhibition wouldn't be well-received here?"

"It wouldn't be enough," Neil replied. "If I had presented that exhibition, I would have rightly been criticized."

Jefferson's designs, after all, were made into buildings by slaves.

As a politician he helped end the Atlantic slave trade, but at Monticello and elsewhere, Jefferson owned more than 600 human beings, including his mistress, Sally Hemings.

So, Neil enlisted a diverse group of advisors to make a new kind of exhibit, highlighting the otherwise anonymous people who built things, like a paneled door made at Monticello.

"They've been able to analyze the grain and the grooves, and the details of the door, and connect that to a set of tools that are known to have been John Hemmings'," said Neil.

John Hemmings was Sally Hemings' brother

There is a brick under glass, next to a handful of handmade nails as a tribute to Isaac Granger, one of the men who made Jefferson's nails. In a daguerreotype taken c. 1847, Granger is pictured wearing his workman's apron.

Love it or hate it, the exhibit is a profoundly different way to present Jefferson.

Silva-Braga asked, "I could see people saying, 'This is an American hero; why are you trying to bring him down?' I could see people saying, 'This is a slaveholder; why are you still building him up?'"

"I've gotten a couple letters: 'How could you do this to Thomas Jefferson? Why would you tarnish the image of this great man?'" said Neil. "And I've had other people say, 'Really? We want to give praise to this man who really had a concubine, who had a slave mistress?'"

The reassessment of Jefferson the architect will continue this spring at the University of Virginia, a campus he designed, when UVA dedicates a "memorial to enslaved laborers."

Columbia University professor Mabel Wilson worked on the UVA memorial and the Chrysler Museum exhibit. She studies architecture and race, and says one of Jefferson's hallmarks was hiding the places where slaves lived and worked.

"I think this is what makes him an architect," she said, "that he understands that the buildings make relationships between people. So, he is very shrewd at using architecture to make invisible something that he completely understood was morally reprehensible and against the values of freedom and equality."

This is all part of a larger reckoning in Virginia.

Janice Underwood is Virginia's first-ever director of diversity, equity and inclusion, hired by Governor Ralph Northam after a photo of a man in blackface was found on Northam's yearbook page. [Virginia's second governor was Thomas Jefferson, who designed the Capitol building where Underwood now works.]

"He said that all men are created equal," Underwood said. "And while I know that to be true, he would not have included me in that. He would not have included Sally Hemings in that, or any of his children with Sally Hemings."

Underwood says she isn't sure if the statue of Jefferson just behind the Capitol should even stay up.

"I don't know, we're reckoning with those questions now," she said. "For so long, we've only told one side of the story."

A handful of other museums across the country are making a similar shift, in some cases changing the labels next to paintings to explain that the person in the portrait was involved in the slave trade.

In its way, the Chrysler Museum is attempting answers to the questions that surround Jefferson, by teaching new names, and attaching new meaning to old ones.

Silva-Braga asked, "Do you want them to come away with the idea that Thomas Jefferson was a great American, or maybe just an important American?"

"I would say he's a great American," Neil replied. "I would say the idea that we have a president who has ideals that we still aspire to, is really something I want people to take away with them. To recognize he fell short of his aspirations, I hope they come away with that as well."

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Thomas Jefferson, architect: An exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., illustrates both the brilliance of the Founding Father's...

Architects React to Trumps New Architect of the Capitol | 2020-01-17 | Architectural Record This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Architects React to Trump's New 'Architect' of the Capitol - Architectural Record

Aoa Architects has clad the stepped gables of a playful apartment block in South Korea with glossy red and white tiles in a reference to the video game Minecraft.

The building, called Cascade House on account of its symmetrical stepped form, is located in Seoul's Mangwon-dong area.

Along with Minecraft, Aoa Architects also cited colourful Lego bricks and the stepped gables of traditional Belgian houses as inspiration for the form and facade.

Cascade house has apartments for five families placed atop a ground-floor shop.

The design was also chosen as a counterpoint to the area's more bland, regulations-driven architecture.

"Most family houses in the neighbourhood are the result of the auto-generative form [caused] by building regulations, such as solar setback requirements and the economic inevitability to accommodate as many units as possible," explained the practice.

Instead, the unusually-shaped block conceals five apartments, arranged in a symmetrically.

The block's line of symmetry cuts through a central staircase, which has been finished in exposed concrete and thin steel balustrades.

Access to this stair is via an open undercroft supported by concrete pillars which sits alongside the shop unit, providing parking space and also a semi-private area next to the street.

This undercroft gives a lightness to the bold stepped gables above.

Cascade House's corners are accented by contrasting rough stone panels that also mark the top of each window.

"The design was settled with partial decorations that could be easily done without causing trouble for the contractors," project architect Uk Sunwoo told Dezeen.

Four single-bedroom apartments occupy each half of the first and second floors as they step upwards.

A larger, two-bedroom apartment occupies the third floor, which opens onto two terraces and features an attic space above.

The symmetrical layout continues in the individual apartments.

A central stair opens into the living room, where a marble pillar sits at the centre of two sliding wooden doors leading to the kitchen or bedroom, separated by a glass-brick partition.

"Split around the marble pillar in the living room, the spatial juxtaposition of the kitchen and the bedroom becomes somewhat surrealistic, like a drama set," said the practice.

Wood, exposed concrete and white plaster dominate the interiors.

The pixel-like red tiles that cover the exterior have been used to create bright splashbacks in the kitchens.

Aoa Architects was founded by Jaewon Suh and Euihaing Lee in 2013.

Another original take on South Korea's building regulations was created by practice STMPJ, which designed a skinny red house in Seoul.

Architect Bjarke Ingels is also a fan of Minecraft, and has said he thinks architects should adopt the videogame's world building principles. The United Nations have used the game to get communities in developing countries to design their own public spaces.

Photography is by Hyosook Chin.

Project credit:

Architect: Aoa ArchitectsProject team: Jaewon Suh, Euihaing Lee, Uk SunwooContractor: Coworkers construction

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Blocky Minecraft-themed apartment building in Seoul clad with pixel-like tiles - Dezeen

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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA DECEMBER 15: Carolina Panthers helmets are seen prior to the game against Seattle Seahawks at Bank of America Stadium on December 15, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

On Tuesday January fourteenth, 2020 at approximately 8:30 p.m. EST Panthers middle linebacker, Luke Kuechly, officially announced his retirement. Then on Thursday January sixteenth, 2020 at approximately 9:17 a.m. the Panthers officially hired former LSU passing game coordinator, Joe Brady, as their offensive coordinator.

A proven legendary defensive mastermind of the last decade exits the organization as the first proven offensive mastermind of the current decade enters. The void left behind by Kuechly will be hard to fill, but Matt Rhule has reportedly been hard at work putting together a squad of defensive architects for his new team.

While the hires havent been officially announced yet, Rhule is expected to addBaylors defensive coordinatorPhil Snow, Colts defensive line coachMike Phair, and Browns linebackers coach and run game coordinatorAl Holcomb.

The theme of the projected coaching staff is familiarity, experience, and proven success. The Panthers organization (especially Tepper) prided themselves on acquiring someone like Rhule who turned the Baylor program into one of admirable talent. The new hires will enable Rhule to do the same in Charlotte.

The new defensive coaches will be working with a relatively fresh mold of players seeking to replace the bevy of talent thats left over the last couple of years. Additionally, theyll be doing it with the assistance of someone who served as an offensive assistant to the Panthers divisional arch rival Saints. Now, lets see how all the pieces fit together.

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Carolina Panthers: The architects of a new defense - Cat Crave

The two psychologists responsible for designing and implementing the CIAs enhanced interrogation techniques will testify in pre-trial hearings in the September 11 case at Guantnamo Bay next week. Amnesty International experts will be there to observe their testimony.

The contract psychologists, James E. Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen, are responsible for developing interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, confinement in small boxes, beatings, and sleep deprivation, which amounted to torture. Many detainees suffered such abuse in secret sites around the globe, including in Europe, with the complicity of a number of European governments. Julia Hall, Amnesty Internationals leading expert on counter-terrorism, who will be attending the hearings, said:

The perverse work of these psychologists has dramatically set back the global fight against torture. The interrogation methods they championed have had a rippling effect around the world.

Rather than being held to account, the people responsible for the US torture program including Mitchell and Jessen have been protected and, in some cases, promoted. The fact that they are testifying at this high-profile hearing shows the CIAs failure to root out the human rights abuses at the heart of its counter-terror program. Such impunity is a stain on US history. Torture is never justified and anyone who uses it must be held to account.

WHAT:

Briefing during pre-trial hearings at Guantnamo Bay naval base

WHO:

Julia Hall is a human rights lawyer and Amnesty Internationals expert on criminal justice, counter-terrorism and human rights

Zeke Johnson is senior director of programs at Amnesty International USA. He leads a team of issue experts working to end urgent human rights abuses in the U.S.

WHEN:

January 18-February 1

HOW:

For further information, or to schedule an interview with Julia Hall or Zeke Johnson, contact Mariya Parodi at [emailprotected]

Background

Mitchell and Jessen are expected to testify beginning on January 20 in the pre-trial hearings against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men charged with helping to plan and assist in the 9/11 attacks.

Amnesty International is one of the few NGOs that have priority for The Gallery, where hearings that are not classified can be observed.

Julia Hall was one of the first persons to be granted permission by the United States Department of Defense to monitor military commissions proceedings. She observed the first trial at Guantnamo in 2008 in the case of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Ladens driver. She is an expert on European complicity in CIA secret sites, including those in Poland, Romania and Lithuania, and has been personally involved in the resettlement of three former detainees (to Ireland and Sweden).

Zeke Johnson has represented the organization before the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; testified before members of Congress about U.S. drone strikes; and served as a trial monitor of the military commissions at Guantnamo Bay.

Amnesty International has long advocated that government officials who were involved in the torture and ill-treatment of detainees in the course of the U.S.s global war on terror be held accountable, and that detainees at Guantnamo should either be released or tried promptly in U.S. federal court.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the U.S. government to close the detention facility and put an end to years of human rights violations.

Amnesty has called attention to the fact that the governments program of torture and ill-treatment and repeated delays of fair trial of alleged suspects of the September 11 attacks have directly contributed to the absence of real justice and remedy for the victims of September 11 and their family members.

Whether torture-tainted statements should be excluded from evidence in the September 11 trial is the question at the core of the hearings at Guantnamo Bay this January. All five co-defendants could face the death penalty if found guilty by the military commissions, whose proceedings do not meet international fair trial standards. The use of this punishment in these cases would be the ultimate denial of basic human rights.

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Architects of CIA torture program to testify at Guantanamo for first time - Amnesty International USA

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Image courtesy of Architects Assist.

The massive brushfires in Australia have damaged a large portion of the country's landscape.As of today, according to BBC News, "more than 100 fires are still burning in the states of New South Wales and Victoria." Many have lost their homes and family members in addition to the amount of wildlife impacted by the fires. However, as with previous large-scale tragedies such as this, people have started to come together to provide aid to those impacted.

On January 4, 2020, architect Jiri Lev of, Atelier Jiri Lev, established Architects Assist, an initiative that aims to provide planning and design assistance to those who have lost their homes during the fire.According to the Architects Assist website, the initiative "acts as a simple referral service between clients and registered architects (it does not itself provide architectural services)." An initiative run under mantle of the Australian Institutes of Architects,Architects Assists has rallied to provide support for current and future natural disaster victims in Australia.

With the media drawing much attention to the country's response to climate change, celebrities using their influence to assist, and news of the country's coal export-fueled economic growth threatened by the fires, Lev aims to provide another voice to the mix of disaster coverage.

Excerpt fromArchitects Assist:

"AA currently represents about500practices from across Australia, willing to dedicate some of their resources to pro bono work and1000students and graduates of architecture prepared to help if any opportunity becomes available to involve them in the AA program.

We aim to enable those affected by the present and future disasters to rebuild their lives, either by themselves or with help from the community, at once or in stages, with minimum amount of money.

Small businesses or communities which are finding it difficult to replace their lost assets, such as shops, halls, churches, or theaters, may also apply for assistance."

Community support and collaboration across disciplines is needed during times of disaster. The role of architects and their response to issues such as these has grown over the years. Lev alongside architects, students, and graduate students alike have joined forces to create a movement that may provide a catalyst for increased action. With the aim of growing the initiative toward positive architectural impacts, Lev and his team have created the Architects Assist: Global Directory for other architects around the world to help provide pro bono services during times of crisis.

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Pro bono architecture initiative, Architects Assist, connects architects with people in need - Archinect