William Alexander Levy

Who was William Alexander Levy?

William Alexander Levy, later William Alexander, was an American architect who worked principally in Southern California.

Early in his career, he was influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. At New York University's new School of Architecture, he studied under Raymond Bossange and Ely Jacques Kahn. One of his art and clay modeling instructors was sculptor Concetta Scaravaglione. Also at NYU, he had as an instructor of English famed writer Thomas Wolfe, whose The Party at Jack's shows remarkable writing on architecture, perhaps related to his strong association with the school and its students, whom he considered among his best. In 1933 or 1934, he worked briefly for skyscraper designer Raymond Hood, who also had been an occasional lecturer at NYU. Renovation of dilapidated structures at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx was Alexander's first commission, one funded by the U.S. government. Other chiefly private client commissions followed. These included interiors for designer Christian Dior, novelist/ travel writer Conrad Bercovicci, and biographer Marcia Davenport.