Martin Eli Weil papers

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).