La Concha Motel

As you leave The Neon Museum, please take a moment to examine the La Concha Motel lobby designed by Paul Revere Williams.

Williams, a native of Los Angeles, studied architectural engineering at both the University of Southern California and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York before pursuing a career in architecture at prominent firms around Los Angeles. Despite his acclaim and evident skill, Williams’ racial identity was seen as a disadvantage in the eyes of his white peers, who comprised the majority of the architecture industry at the time. His experiences battling bigotry were documented in his 1937 essay for American Magazine, titled I am a Negro.

In 1961, architect Paul Revere Williams was commissioned by the Doumani family to design a lobby building for their La Concha Motel that would stand out from other properties on The Strip and be easily recognizable to those driving into the city. The lobby is constructed in a Googie style, featuring swooping curves, dramatic angles, and gracefully flowing lines across its 1,100-square foot structure, entirely fabricated from glass and thin-shell concrete. The building’s large, stylized parabolic curves are reminiscent of car fins of the era. The structure was cut into eight pieces in 2006 and moved three miles north of its original location to its current site at The Neon Museum, where it serves as the La Concha Visitors’ Center. The building’s shell was reassembled in 2008.

Paul Revere Williams retired from practice in 1973, with his legacy in the field of architecture recognized widely. He died on January 23, 1980. He firmly believed that architecture and design could—and should—be forces for positive social change. In 2017, Williams was awarded the American Institute of Architects highest honor, the AIA Gold Medal.