Passage I

Paul Revere Williams and the La Concha Motel

[1]

Architect Paul Revere Williams opened his own firm in 1922, and his vision and willingness to experiment led to a successful fifty-year career of planning buildings, primarily near Los Angeles. [A] He helped create more than 3.000 buildings, which varied in type, as well as homes for the Holly wood elite. However, Williams did not limit his work to Southern California. His architecture stretches from Washington, DC, to Bogota, Colombia. One of his most interesting designs were in Las Vegas; the La Concha Motel .

[2]

In 1961, Williams, by then a renowned architect, was hired to design a new 100-room motel. Situated among larger Las Vegas hotels, the La Concha needed to stand out. Williams was tasked with creating an eye-catching design that would attract guests. He drew inspiration from a Southern California architectural trend known as Googie. [B]

[3]

Envisioning a motel that combined the name La Concha(which translates to"shell'') with the arched roofs typical of Googie architecture the lobby that Williams designed was meant to appear, from a distance like a giant shell. On three of the ones, Williams designed twenty-eight-foot-high concrete arches that jutted out over the sidewalks. [C] Inside, the lobby, which was a place for gathering, consisted of a large, open space that functioned as a social gathering place, and included the registration desk.

[4]

Indeed most of the La Concha Motel was torn down in 2005, the famous shell-like lobby lives on. [D] Preservation groups saved it from demolition, and, in 2006, the lobby was moved across town in pieces. Reassembled, it became the visitors' center of the Neon Museum. where retired neon signs are put on display(the famous neon sign of the cowboy named Vegas Vic was erected in 1951). With a distinctive design that enhances the Neon Museum, Williams's lobby is one of the last remaining celebrated examples of Googie architecture in the United States.