Abel Faidy architectural drawings, 1953-1965

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Gift of Joanne and Douglas Schroeder (2015.0008).

Portions of this collection are available digitally. Please contact the Rights and Reproductions Department at rightsrepro@chicagohistory.org for more information.

Microfilm is also available for research use.

Abel Faidy architectural drawings (Chicago History Museum), with a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of the specific item(s).

Graphite and colored pencil sections, elevations, renderings, floor plans, plot plans, regulating diagrams, and dynamic modulation studies created by Abel Faidy mostly related to two unbuilt projects: the Villa Dionysos (36), an ambassador’s country residence, and Lake Shore Center (27), a multi-tower apartment complex with a theatre and restaurant/bar. A third set of drawings (23) illustrates Faidy’s mathematical studies to achieve perfection in architectural design through proportion and measurements. To illustrate his ordered system of design, Faidy developed these untitled drawings during the years 1953-1959. He then applied these rules to his design for “Projet: Villa Dionysos and Estate."

Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1894 to a well-to-do and cultured family, Abel Faidy first studied in Germany and England and then enrolled in the Beaux Arts Academy in Geneva in 1911. Leaving home due to a parental dispute, he moved to San Francisco in 1914, to Omaha for a year, and finally to Chicago in 1918. Until 1925 he worked for the firms Store Fixture Company and Taussig and Flesch and spent several years teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago. Faidy established his independent practice 1926-1939; interested in a broad range of projects he designed commercial and residential spaces, furniture, as well as clothes and graphics, a practice to which he returned after working for the Ford Motor Co. during World War II. Some of his projects included the soda fountain in the Sherman Hotel (1930), the flower shop in the Board of Trade (1938), and the Hedrich-Blessing Studios (1935). Many of his projects were published in "Architectural Forum" and "Architectural Review." In partial reaction to an automobile accident, Faidy took no commissions from 1953 to his death in 1965, choosing to devote his efforts to achieve a system of design based on his geometric and mathematical analyses drawn from Le Corbusier’s Modulor, the Golden Section and Fibonacci series.

Related materials at the Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the published item "Project: Villa Dionysos and Estate" (call #: NA737 .F2 FOLIO) and several files within the Hedrich Blessing photograph collection, filed both under Faidy's name and project name.

• Names
  • Villa Dionysos and Estate--Unbuilt--Drawings
  • Lake Shore Center--Unbuilt--Drawings

The collection is arranged into four series by project and format.

Series 1. Golden Section/Modulor Studies, 1953-1959 (folder 1, roll 1-2)

In 23 drawings Faidy presented his analyses of Le Corbusier's Modulor and Fibonocci's series with his own development of the mathematical bases for proportion and beauty.

Series 2. Projet: Villa Dionysos and Estate, 1959 (folder 3-4, roll 3-4)

The group of 36 drawings for the unbuilt project includes the traditional elevations, plans and sections common to sets of architectural drawings and also includes Faidy's regulating diagrams which determined the dimensions and plans of the project.

Series 3. A Lake Shore Center, 1965 (roll 5-6)

An unbuilt project is presented in 27 drawings, primarily elevations and sections of the apartment complex.

Series 4. Microfilm, undated (2 boxes)

One negative reel and a positive duplicate reel contain 87 frames of Faidy’s drawings for the three project in this collection. One shot is extremely out of focus. The reel includes an untitled drawing #21 from the Golden Section/Modulor series; this drawing was not included in the gift to the Chicago History Museum and its current location is unknown.