William Pereira (1909–1985) was an American architect based in Los Angeles, noted for futuristic landmarks such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco (1972). Born in Chicago, he studied at the University of Illinois and moved to Los Angeles in 1933. From 1959 his own firm completed hundreds of projects, among them the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the master plan for the new city of Irvine, which put him on the cover of Time in 1963. Frank Gehry was among the architects who came out of his firm and his classes.
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His buildings often combine strong geometric forms with concrete façades that shade bronze reflective glass from the sun. The Geisel Library in San Diego (1970), at the head of a canyon, has arches and floors designed to look like hands holding up a stack of books. The Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel (1971), built for North American Aviation and Rockwell, is a stepped pyramid known as "the Ziggurat". In Doha the developer Qaddumi commissioned him for the Sheraton Grand Doha (1982) and other landmarks along the Corniche.
