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Architect Paul Williams Blazed a Trail, and More Home Buyers Are Discovering His Work

The list of celebrities who have passed through Mag Black’s Los Angeles home is classic Hollywood: Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gabor.

But when the 7,000-square-foot, Georgian Colonial-style home listed this month for almost $14 million, one star took center stage: Paul Revere Williams, the architect. “I didn’t know a thing about him, but everyone ooh’d and ahh’d when they heard this was a Paul Williams,” says Ms. Black, who recently relisted her home for $13.95 million, an 8% increase, partly due to the growing strength of the Williams pedigree.

The late Mr. Williams, whose career spanned five decades and an array of architectural styles, is back in vogue—and not just with the Tinseltown set. The first African-American to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects in 1923, Mr. Williams has long been revered in the city’s affluent pockets for his willingness to put the client before convention, and for his attention to detail. (His biographer said she can identify a bona fide Williams by the gentle rise of the staircase.) Now a number of posthumous honors, including an AIA Gold Medal in December, which is shared by the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, have shined a brighter spotlight on the architect’s work.

Agents say that renewed name-recognition can translate to a premium for home sellers. In June there were six Williams-designed homes publicly listed for sale, ranging from a $2.4 million auction for a Mediterranean four-bedroom in San Clemente, Calif., to an $88 million, 30,000-square-foot remodeled mansion in Los Angeles’s Holmby Hills. In 2015, one of his 1931 Spanish Colonial Revivals sold for $38 million in the posh Bel-Air neighborhood—almost $19 million more than when it sold in 2011. At least two other million-dollar homes for sale are described as “Williams inspired”—agents say that is common practice in a town that is inclined to name-drop.

“I think there’s a resurgence of interest in him,” says Robin Collins, an agent with Keller Williams who, in May, listed a $3.2 million Mediterranean Mr. Williams built in 1926.

Mr. Williams, a Los Angeles native whose first luxury-home commissions began in the 1920s, designed over 2,000 private homes across the globe, about 300 of which are located in Los Angeles’s so-called Platinum Triangle neighborhoods, says Karen Elyse Hudson, Mr. Williams’s granddaughter and biographer. He died in 1980 at the age of 85.

Mr. Williams amassed an impressive clientele, including Lucille Ball, Lon Chaney and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, thanks in part to his willingness to work in whatever style his client demanded, Ms. Hudson says.

In an era of deeply held prejudice, he learned to draw renderings upside down, he wrote in an 1937 article, so as to never force his white patrons to sit beside him. Today his homes are prized for their intricate detailing and elegant proportions—two qualities that have spared many of his homes from the wrecking ball of new-home developers.

“He could see forward and around corners,” says Ms. Black, 73, a wealth manager who owns the 1938 Georgian Colonial in Holmby Hills. She bought the home for $2.1 million in 1996, records show. Unlike many homes of that era, the 7,000-square-foot home has taller, 9-foot ceilings. Its largely open floorplan, with an emphasis on outdoor living, is echoed in new luxury homes today. The foyer and curving grand staircase, a hallmark of Williams’s designs, is decorated with a Baccarat chandelier purchased by Hollywood starlet Ms. Gabor, the former homeowner, Ms. Black says.

Former renters include Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Audrey Hepburn, according to Ms. Hudson’s book, “Paul R. Williams: Classic Hollywood Style.”

The sitting room hides an amenity from the first homeowner, “From Here to Eternity” producer Buddy Adler: A hidden storage area once used for film reels and projector equipment in what was then a home theater.

Ms. Black, who lives at the five-bedroom home with her husband, David Scott, a retired astronaut, is selling the 1.1-acre property to be closer to family in Florida. They listed the home last year for $12.95 million with Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker. They took it off the market near the end of 2016 “to refresh” it and redecorate, Ms. Black said. In June, they relisted it for $13.995 million on the strength of the market and Mr. Williams’s surging name value, Ms. Mills said. (His AIA award and a subsequent honor from the University of Southern California Architectural Guild were given this year.)

In Ontario, Calif., about an hour east of the heated Los Angeles market, Darius Long is preparing to sell a very different Williams home—a 2,250-square-foot, International-style Midcentury Modern, circa 1947.

“People thought it was a pharmacy,” says Mr. Long, 54, a semiretired aerospace electronics buyer, about the avant-garde design. Surrounded by Colonials, the two-level, two-toned, green-and-brown home is sited on an angle to create a large semicircular drive. Mr. Long bought the home from the original owner for $435,000 in 2004, records show.

Inside, there is original woodwork and built-ins from renowned craftsman Sam Maloof. With ample glass on the front and rear of the home, the open floorplan is filled with natural light. Floor-to-ceiling glass sliders in the rear open to a yard with a centuries-old oak tree. The finishes, even down to the linoleum floors and the 1960s General Electric stovetop, are as the prior owner left them. “I consider myself a docent—just a caretaker of the house,” says Mr. Long, who says he has changed almost nothing about the home.

Mr. Long plans to list the home for around $1 million in the next few months to downsize to a home in another western state. Matthew Berkley of Deasy/Penner & Partners, the listing agent and an architectural historian, says that the unusual design and the fact that this is one of only two known Paul Williams-designed homes in the city justifies the listing price. Homes of a similar size nearby are listed in the $600,000 range. Mr. Long says he will only sell to a buyer who wants to preserve the spirit of the home.

Williams-designed homes haven’t been immune to buyers’ demands. Ms. Hudson estimates that, “on the low side,” about 40 of her grandfather’s homes have been demolished in the Los Angeles area. In 2006, one of his most notable homes, the Midcentury Modern bachelor pad of Mr. Sinatra, was torn down to make way for new construction, she says.

In Los Angeles, due to the damaging effects of hot weather and limited housing supply, homes older than 20 years are becoming scarce, because developers believe they can maximize their investment by building new, says Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland. But the rising profile of architects like Paul Williams is helping to turn the tide.

“It’s a reason to say to a seller, ‘Wait, don’t tear that down—we think it’s worth more if you keep it,’ ” he says.

There is another safeguard for Williams homes—they seldom come up for sale.

John Sweeney, 65, a civil-rights attorney, bought a 6,000-square-foot Spanish Colonial Revival in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles for $1.975 million in 2003, according to city records. “I feigned that I didn’t know Paul Williams,” Mr. Sweeney recalls, to drive a hard bargain. “Of course, I knew everything about him.”

Mr. Sweeney, who is African-American, says he found a kindred spirit in Mr. Williams, who faced discrimination, even as he became a household name.

“It was very special to me to live in a house that was designed by an African-American who couldn’t live there,” he says. The original neighborhood covenants, he discovered, only allowed the home to transfer to white home buyers.

In 2008, he had the 1927 home designated a Los Angeles historic cultural monument, effectively making it more difficult for the home to be demolished. He has no plans to sell, but should his family decide otherwise, there are protections in place.

“I wanted to make sure,” he says, “that nobody can take down these walls.”

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