ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory 101 Museum Drive Palm Springs, California 92263 760.322.4833 Prepared by George D. Brightbill 2007. Last updated by Frank Lopez May 2020. ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Title: Albert Frey Collection Date (inclusive): 1940’s to 1990’s (bulk 1950-1970) Creators: Albert Frey Extent: 100 linear feet plus flat file drawers Repository: Palm Springs Art Museum, The Lorraine Boccardo Archive Study Center Palm Springs, California 92263 Conditions Governing Access/Restrictions: The collection is open to qualified researchers by appointment only. Literary Copyright/Publication Rights: No interpretive restriction is placed on material. Separate permissions to be obtained for publishing material. Property rights to the physical object belong to the Palm Springs Art Museum. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where Palm Springs Art Museum does not hold the copyright. Contact the Librarian for permissions. Credit line for use in exhibition or publishing should read: Palm Springs Art Museum. Preferred Citation: [Identification of Item], Albert Frey Collection, Palm Springs Art Museum, 55-1999.2. Name of Cataloger/Date Completed: George Brightbill, 2007 and last updated by Frank Lopez, October 2019. Biographical Note: Albert Frey, FAIA, was born 1903 in Switzerland, and earned his architecture diploma there in 1924. He moved to Paris in 1928 to work for Le Corbusier, on projects including the Villa Savoye. Moving to New York in 1930, Frey was the first Corbusier disciple to work in the U.S. There, he became partners with architect A. Lawrence Kocher, who was also managing 2 ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory editor of Architectural Record magazine. Together they published numerous articles on urban planning, the modernist aesthetic, and technology. Kocher and Frey also designed four buildings, including the acclaimed Aluminaire House, a demonstration house designed for the Exhibition of the Architectural League in New York, 1931. In 1934, Frey came to Palm Springs to supervise construction of the Kocher-Samson Building, a mixed-use building for his partner’s brother, J.J. Kocher. Frey fell in love with the area, and worked with John Porter Clark for two years under the offices of Van Pelt and Lind as neither architect was yet licensed in California. Returning to New York in 1937 to work on the Museum of Modern Art, Frey moved back to Palm Springs permanently two years later. Rejoining Clark in a partnership, Frey went onto design a body of work including residential, commercial, institutional and civic buildings. Many of these buildings are preserved today including Raymond Loewy House (1946-47), Palm Springs City Hall (1952), Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Valley Station (1963) and Frey House II (1963-64) and the most recently restored North Shore Yacht Club at the Salton Sea (1958). Frey lived in Palm Springs until his death in 1998. As Palm Springs’ first full-time, resident architect, Frey is known as one of the founders of Desert Modernism. Scope and Content Note: Upon his death Albert Frey donated to the Palm Springs Art Museum his second residence in Palm Springs, 686 Palisades Drive (Frey House II), and the contents of the residence. The Albert Frey Collection (55-1999.2) was acquired in 1999 at the bequest of Albert Frey. Materials came from the Frey property. The collection contains drawings, slides, negatives, scrapbooks, books, magazines, codes, standards, professional association materials, artifacts and vendor samples and catalogs, correspondence, and household items. As with many collections of this kind the contents of the manuscript folders had mostly been arranged into groupings by the donor for his own use. This original order simplified the arrangement of the collection into standard archival series and allowed the maintenance of Frey’s filing methods. Besides the organized files there was a quantity of material filed without any discernable organization. These materials were organized into Series IV and V with a differentiation into purely personal materials and materials concerned with the profession of architect. After being arranged intellectually the manuscript materials were transferred into acid- free folders with the photographic materials transferred into the appropriate acid-free sleeves. The collection is organized into 14 series each of which is described below: Series I: Correspondence - Active Series II: Correspondence – Inactive 3 ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory Series III: Finances - CONFIDENTIAL Series IV: Personal Files, Miscellaneous Series V: Architectural Files, Miscellaneous Series VI: Architectural Projects Series VII: Personal and Architectural Photographs Series VIII: Blueprints, Drawings, and Maps Series IX: Books Series X: Magazines /Periodicals and Clippings Series XI: Vendor Catalogs and Codes, Standards, etc. Series XII: Memorabilia + Artifacts Series XIII: Household Items Series XIV: Frey House II Each folder in this collection was assigned a locator number to assist in file retrieval. This assigned location includes a capital roman numeral for the series, a capital letter for the box or drawer, and a folder number within the box or drawer. Folder descriptions include dates of included materials when available. Most folders also include undated materials. Due to Frey’s filing methods an Index to Architectural Projects has been provided at the end of the inventory to assist researchers in retrieving all files relevant to specific projects. Series Description Series I: Correspondence - Active The Active Correspondence Series was originally alphabetically filed without many individual folders. The loose contents of this file were sorted into folders often containing several letters of the alphabet. The larger files were mostly correspondence and other materials dealing with individual architectural projects. Series II: Correspondence – Inactive The Inactive Correspondence Series generally consists of correspondence and other materials dealing with individual architectural projects. Series III: Finances - CONFIDENTIAL The Finances Series consist of a variety of materials dealing with Albert Frey’s everyday financial life and includes cancelled checks, bank account statements, individual income tax statements, bank passbooks, paid bills, and medical bills. The series also includes a few partnership income tax returns within the period 1949-1971 and some ledger materials delineating employees and their payroll information. Most financial information dealing with architectural projects will be found in Series VI. 4 ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory Series IV: Personal Files, Miscellaneous This series contains materials concerning Frey’s life outside of his work and interests as an architect. This includes his family, marriage and divorce, engagements and telephone calls, naturalization and passports, etc. Series V: Architectural Files, Miscellaneous The Architectural Files series groups together all of the materials which deal with Frey and his architectural work and concerns which were not directly related to specific projects. It includes architectural supply catalogs, articles and books about Frey, the Frey and Chambers partnership, and a scrapbook whose contents delineate Frey’s life as an architect. Series VI: Architectural Projects The project files are mostly arranged by project and individual names and include a variety of materials. Blueprints and photographs had been removed and refilled in the appropriate series. Most of the project files deal with the design and construction of residences for individuals. This series also includes separate files of forms useful in architectural projects, project billing statements and time sheets, and information concerning projects deemed significant or of architectural interest. Series VII: Personal and Architectural Photographs This series contains photographic materials originally grouped together by Frey and other photographs which were found scattered throughout other files in the collection. The first group of materials is photographic albums which were assigned a number for organizational purposes. These include family and travel materials and many views of the desert shot by Frey. Where possible photographs were removed from the original loose- leaf binders and placed in acid-free sleeves for purposes of preservation. Some of the color photographs were probably sent to Frey by other individuals who had visited him or were showing their own houses. There are several photographers represented in the collection. Among the most prolific is Julius Shulman. Gayle’s Studio was also used generally for drawings, sketches, and models. Other photographs may be found in the scrapbook which is filed as part of Series V. Most photographs in this series are undescribed and undated. Series VIII: Blueprints, Drawings, and Maps This series consists of oversize, mostly architectural project, materials generally stored in flat blueprint files. Some of the blueprints were prepared by other architects as noted. 5 ALBERT FREY COLLECTION Finding Aid and Inventory Series IX: Books A total of 161 books identified in library online catalog as “Albert Frey Collection”. Items listed as the Albert Frey Collection the Ownership and