Martin Eli Weil papers, approximately 1964-2009, bulk 1979-2008

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Summary

Creators:
Weil, Martin Eli
Abstract:
This collection contains the professional papers of architect Martin Eli Weil (1940-2009), relating to Weil's work as a restoration architect and consultant in Los Angeles and Southern California. The materials date from 1964 until 2009, the year of Weil's death, with the bulk of the material relating to 428 projects on which Weil worked as a restoration architect and consultant from the time he arrived in Southern California in 1979 until 2008. Files document 428 individual projects, including Frank Lloyd Wright structures such as Barnsdall Park and Hollyhock House; the restoration of the El Capitan Theater; and jobs undertaken as a consultant for the cities of San Gabriel, La Verne, Porterville, and Monrovia, California. The collection also includes papers reflecting Weil's service as Restoration Services Director for the Restoration Services Division of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada from 1971-1978; his work as an instructor in historic preservation at the University of Southern California from 1981-2009; his writing, chiefly as an architecture columnist for the Larchmont Chronicle; his involvement with the Harvard Heights community in Los Angeles, where he lived; and his Master's thesis project.
Extent:
137 boxes and 6 oversize folders (134 linear feet)
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains correspondence; project and business records; reports; contracts; notes and research files; appointment books; drawings, including approximately 2920 rolled drawings; approximately 5000 photographs, chiefly snapshots depicting work in progress; material samples, including approximately 2000 fragments of wood or other surfaces containing paint samples; and 46 media files documenting the career of Martin Eli Weil. The materials date from 1964 until 2009, the year of Weil's death, with the bulk of the material relating to 428 projects on which Weil worked as a restoration architect and consultant from the time he arrived in Southern California in 1979 until 2008; some of these projects were undertaken as part of larger projects, such as jobs Weil performed while under contract to various municipalities. Of the 428 projects, 406 were included in Weil's project records, found in his filing cabinets; 22 projects are represented in the collection only by either photographs, drawings, or materials samples (objects), without any other project documentation. Rolled drawings comprise both original drawings by Weil and reprographic copies of drawings by original and prior restoration architects that Weil used in his work.

The collection documents the wide range of work Weil performed, comprising historic structures reports, microscopic paint analysis, tax act and historic landmark certification, environmental impact and seismic structures analysis, and other restoration and rehabilitation work on structures. Major projects represented include Hollyhock House and other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Barnsdall Park as well as Storer House; the El Capitan Theater and Bullock's Department Store in Pasadena; residences including David O. Selznick's home (Joelson Residence); and work Weil undertook as a consultant for the cities of La Verne, San Gabriel, Porterville, and Monrovia, California.

Also included are papers reflecting Weil's work as the Restoration Services Director for the Restoration Services Division of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada from 1971-1978; research and teaching materials from his work as a faculty member at the University of Southern California from 1981-2009; documentation of Weil's writings, chiefly as a columnist for the Larchmont Chronicle; correspondence, writings, and research files relating to Weil's community involvement, chiefly his work to support creation of a Historic Protection Overlay Zone in Harvard Heights; and 68 drawings from his Master's thesis project.

The materials in the collection are grouped into series designated by the archivist as suggested in the Standard Series for Architecture and Design Records: A Tool for the Arrangement and Description of Archival Collections, developed by Kelcy Shepherd and Waverly Lowell (2010).

Biographical / historical:

Restoration architect Martin Eli Weil (1940-2009) was born July 2, 1940 in Glasgow, Montana, to Esther and Herbert Weil, a civil engineer, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Weil earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Iowa in 1962 and two Master's degrees, one in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965; and one in Early American Culture and the Decorative Arts in 1967, as a Fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware.

Upon completing his degrees, Weil worked first as an architect with John Carl Warnecke, Architect, in New York City (1967-1968) and then as a restoration consultant and restoration architect for John Dickey, Architect, in Media, Pennsylvania (1967-1971). In 1971, Weil was recruited to join the staff of Parks Canada's Division of Restoration Services in the Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Ottawa, serving initially as the Division's Head Restoration Architect in the General Period Section (1971-1975) and then as Head of Period Architecture and Acting Head of Administration (1975-1976) and Division Chief (1976-1978), ultimately overseeing restoration of ten historic sites. In addition, Weil served as president of Heritage Ottawa and, in 1974, founded the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, which he served as president until 1976.

In 1978, Weil moved to Southern California, where he soon became a prime mover in founding the Los Angeles Conservancy, in part in order help thwart the demolition of the Los Angeles Public Library. In 1979, Weil established his business, "Martin Eli Weil, Restoration Architect," which he ran from his home with a small staff, taking on projects both as principal architect and as a consultant. He developed expertise in areas including the restoration of historic buildings and sites; rehabilitation of period structures and their adaptation for re-use; microscopic paint analysis and color restoration; specific plans and their implementation; preservation design guidelines; environmental impact and historic structures reports; tax act certification and national register nominations; and interior design. In 1985, Weil bought the last extant house designed by the architecture firm Greene & Greene in Los Angeles, the Lucy Wheeler House (1905), and made its restoration a continuing project, even as he worked and lived there.

During a career that lasted until his death in 2009, Weil worked on hundreds of projects, including many significant restorations and rehabilitations; major projects included the Storer House, Hollyhock House, and other buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright; the El Capitan Theater; Bullock's Department Store in Pasadena; Ebell Theatre; Griffith Park Observatory; the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy's Mentryville project; Villa Riviera; and the Huntington Mausoleum. He worked for private parties as well as municipal, state, and federal governments, and served as City Restoration Architect and consultant for cities including San Gabriel, La Verne, Pasadena, and Monrovia.

Other professional engagements included work as a teacher; one of the original lecturers at the University of Southern California's Summer Program in Historic Preservation and also a faculty member in USC's Historic Preservation graduate program, Weil taught courses at the school from 1981-2009 in subjects including historic preservation, surveying historic sites, historic interiors, historic finishes, the built environment of Los Angeles, and period interiors and furnishings. He also wrote a column, "Weil on Architecture," for the Larchmont Chronicle from 1995-1999. Along with his work for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Weil was also involved in his neighborhood of Harvard Heights, in the West Adams section of Los Angeles. He was a charter member of the West Adams Heritage Association and a member of the Harvard Heights Association, and his efforts were key to creating the Harvard Heights Historic Protection Overlay Zone.

For his work in the field of restoration architecture and for his service to the community, he had two awards named in his honor, the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada's Martin Eli Weil Prize (established 1989) and the West Adams Heritage Association's Martin Eli Weil Historic Preservation Award (established 2006); in both cases, he was first recipient of these awards. Weil also earned awards from the Los Angeles Conservancy (multiple honors); the National Trust for Historic Preservation, for his work on the El Capitan Theater (1992); the California Governor's Preservation Award, for his work on Hanna House (1999); and, shortly before his death, the California Preservation Foundation Preservation Design Award, for color consulting and exterior renovation of the Villa Riviera in Long Beach (2009). Weil died in February, 2009.

Acquisition information:
Gift of the Estate of Martin E. Weil, February 2010.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following four series:

  • Series I. Personal Papers
    • Subseries A. Student Work
  • Series II. Professional Papers
    • Subseries A. Writings and Related Research
    • Subseries B. Faculty Papers
    • Subseries C. Associations and Committees
    • Subseries D. Awards
    • Subseries E. Scrapbook and Curricula Vitae
    • Subseries F. Posters and Drawings
    • Subseries G. Other
  • Series III. Office Records
  • Series IV. Project Records
    • Subseries A. Files
    • Subseries B. Photographs
    • Subseries C. Objects
    • Subseries D. Media
    • Subseries E. Drawings

Series and subseries were designated by the archivist as suggested in the Standard Series for Architecture and Landscape Design Records: A Tool for the Arrangement and Description of Archival Collections.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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