Sixteen architectural drawings once owned by architect and designer Eileen Gray comprise the archive. Original drawings and reprographic prints for three of Gray's own architectural projects form the bulk of the archive, with the rest being prints of drawings for two projects by Gray's colleagues, Le Corbusier and Jean Badovici. Although few in number, the drawings in this collection document key aspects of Gray's architectural work, including her interest in minimal housing and in the role of architecture in public welfare, as well as her interactions with colleagues.

Eileen Gray came to architecture late. She designed her first structures in her mid-forties, after achieving significant success as a furniture and interior designer in Paris. With only nine realized projects, most of them renovations, Gray's small architectural output belies her importance in the development of modernist architecture in France. Perhaps architectural historian and critic Joseph Rykwert put it best when he described Eileen Gray's contribution as "condensed."

8 Linear Feet

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