The Project files series document Mushcenheim's architectural work from his student days at MIT and the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts through over 130 projects while based in New York City and 63 projects undertaken while on the faculty of the University of Michigan. The project files are organized by chronologically assigned job number and include architectural drawings, papers related to the projects, photographs and presentation boards.
Muschenheim assigned each client a job number from 1 to 193. Each client received a single job number no matter how many projects Muschenheim may have done for the client. Many job numbers contain more than one project because many of Muschenheim's clients hired him to work on more than one residence, building, etc. With minor exceptions, the job numbers reflect the chronological progression of Muschenheim's career.
In this finding aid, the Job title consists of the Muschenheim assigned job number and the client name as listed in the Avery or Bentley finding aid or, in a few cases, inferred from the context of the finding aid. Each job number consists of one or more projects. For Avery job numbers, the project titles are taken from the Avery's MARC catalog records, which in turn were derived from Mushcenheim's original folder titles.
Projects are subdivided by format of material into Drawings, Papers, Photographs, and Presentation Boards as appropriate for each project. Photographs and presentation boards for some Avery job numbers are part of the Bentley collection.
The architectural drawings constitute the bulk of the Project Files. For any given project there may be a single drawing or as many as 100. For Avery job numbers, the drawings are described at an item level. The item description, taken from the Avery's MARC record, typically consists of an accession number, drawing title, date and possibly a note. Each sheet of paper containing architectural drawings within a given project is assigned a single accession number. The accession numbers for this collection are used to record the order of drawings within a specific project. The accession numbers begin with the number 1986.004.00001, with the last five digits being numbered sequentially. Bracketed information in the item level description of drawings is taken from the archival file for the project. Bracketed titles may either be taken from the archival file or supplied by the cataloger.
Drawings for Bentley projects are described at the folder level. The folders may be organized by type of drawing, date or some other criteria. The folder description typically includes a folder title, date and note on the type or medium of drawings included.
A selection of drawings from both the Avery and Bentley collections have been digitized and the images linked from this finding aid. For Avery drawings, the [view image] link points to a single drawing. Links from the Bentley folder level description point to one or more images from the folder.
The Papers for a project may include correspondence with clients and contractors, specifications, notes, reports, legal documents and accounting material, as well as some original drawings and prints. The Papers in the Avery project files sometimes include photographs. For many projects the papers consist of a single folder of material. The folder may be listed simply as "Papers" or "Archives," but will often include a brief descriptive note. Folders for "Papers" in Avery collections are numbered according to Muschenheim's original scheme. The folder number listed in the finding aid includes the job number and a sequential number. However, because the original sequence included numbers for folders of drawings that have now been stored separately, the sequence for the papers may have gaps or be out of order.
Photographs include images of drawings and models, under-construction and completed projects and studies of various interior and exterior designs. The photographs include both prints and slides. As noted above, some jobs in the Avery collection have photos in the "Papers" folders. The Bentley collection has many photographs for Avery jobs. These are listed with the appropriate job number. Selected photographs from the Bentley collection have been digitized and the images are linked from this finding aid.
The Presentation Boards are mounted photographs of some of Muschenheim's major projects. The Bentley collection contains presentation boards for a number of Aver job numbers.
Both the Avery and Bentley have retained the dividers Muschenheim used in organizing his files. He frequently wrote on the dividers and this information may prove useful to researchers. The dividers constitute boxes 21-29 of the Avery collection. A sample of the dividers is included in box A30, filed under Job #79. Dividers from the Bentley collection are located in box B14. Bentley dividers with substantial information written on them were photocopied onto acid-free paper and placed with related drawings or related folders.
