FALUDI, Eugenio Giacomo (1899-1981), the dean of the town planning movement in Canada who lived and worked in Toronto, Ont. from 1940 until 1981. Born into a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary and originally named Jakab Floh, he changed his name to Faludi before 1924 and fled the political persecution of his Hungarian homeland, moving to Rome Italy in 1924 where he enrolled in the Scuola Superiore de Architettura di Roma. In 1926 he joined the progressive think-tank called the Gruppo Urbanisti Romani (GUR), and after his graduation in 1927 he pursued a career in the field of town planning, preparing master plans for Italian towns such as Padova, San Pellegrino, Arezzo, Cagliari, Pisa and Perugia between 1929 and 1931. Immersed in the busy world of the emerging modernist movement in architecture in Italy, he soon turned his attention to architectural design. He became a key figure in the revolutionary movement of Italian Rationalist architecture, and he can be ranked with other leading luminaries such as Giuseppe Terragni, Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Figini & Pollini, Enrico A. Griffini, Adalberto Libera, and Piero Lingeri. His friendship with the architect Giuseppe Pagano, who was also editor of the leading and highly influential Italian architectural journal called Casabella [Milan] ensured that his works received extensive coverage in monthly issues of this journal which is still published today in 2022, and he made a significant contribution to contemporary architecture in Italy. His most important commission was the monumental Children's Holiday Home at the seaside in Cervia, Italy (1936-38), a modernist masterpiece dominated by a heroic 180 ft. high tower serving as an observation outlook and water tower.
However, the career of Faludi was dogged by poor timing and sheer bad luck. Forced to flee the fascist political regime of Italy in 1939 because of his Jewish background, he first went to London, England in late 1939 where his impressive portfolio of Italian modernist works caught the attention of the editors of The Architect's Journal, and at The Architectural Review, who then published some of the first English language articles on his Italian buildings. However, the hierarchical class structure in England did not appeal, and within a year he left that country and emigrated to Canada in 1940 where he was welcomed by the architectural community in Montreal. He then moved to Toronto, giving lectures on the subject of town planning at both McGill University, and then at the University of Toronto (The Gazette [Montreal], 14 Nov. 1941, 21).
He obtained a position as a staff member of the City of Toronto Planning Board, and within two years he persuaded the Board to produce a visionary new Master Plan for Toronto (1944). That same year he formed a new company called Town Planning Consultants Ltd., with architects Eric Arthur, Gordon Adamson, Anthony P.C. Adamson, and the landscape architect H.B. Dunington Grubb (see profile of the firm in the Financial Post [Toronto], 3 June 1944, p. 3). Their office was immediately successful, and during the next two decades they collaborated on more than forty Master Plan reports for existing municipalities and three new towns throughout Ontario. Faludi later died in Toronto on 7 April 1981 (obituary Toronto Star, 8 April 1981, A 24; obituary Globe & Mail [Toronto], 8 April 1981; biography and works in Agnoldomenico Pica, Nuova Architettura Italiana, [Milan], 1936, 52-53; biog. and port. Financial Post [Toronto], 3 June 1944, 3; biog. and port. Windsor Star, 17 Jan. 1945, 5; biog. The Canadian Who's Who, xiii, 1975, 324; biog. MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects [New York], 1982, Vol. 2, p. 39; biog. and list of works in Allgemeines Kunstler Lexicon [Munich], Vol. 36, 2003, 447-48; biog. and list of works in Dizionario dell'Architettura del XX Secolo, pub. 2000, [Turin] Vol. 2, p. 322).
E.G. FALUDI (works in Canada)
TORONTO, ONT., Master Plan for the City of Toronto, 1943 (Architect's Journal [London], vol. 100, 14 Sept. 1944, 193-96, illus.)
WINDSOR, ONT, Master Plan for the City of Windsor, 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 281-83, illus. & descrip.)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., Master Plan, 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 293, illus. & descrip.)
PETERBOROUGH, ONT., Master Plan for the City of Peterborough, 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 284-85, illus. & descrip.)
STRATFORD, ONT., Master Plan for the City of Stratford, 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 286-87, illus. & descrip.)
HAMILTON, ONT., Master Plan for the City of Hamilton, 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 279-81, illus. & descrip.; Mark Osbaldeston, Unbuilt Hamilton, 2016, 40-46, illus.)
TERRACE BAY, ONT., Master Plan for new company town for Lac Pulp & Paper Co., 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Nov. 1946, 290-92, illus. & descrip., and xxvi, Sept. 1949, 270, illus. & descrip.; Ottawa Journal, 13 March 1947, 26)
REGINA, SASK., Master Plan for the City of Regina, with new Civic Centre, west of Albert Street, between Victoria Avenue and 12th Avenue, 1946-47 (Montreal Star, 22 Feb. 1946, 6; Financial Post [Toronto], 22 Feb. 1946, 6)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., plan for Humber Valley Village West, north of Dundas Street West, between Islington Avenue and Royal York Road, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 268, illus. & descrip.)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., plan for Thorncrest Village, north of Rathburn Road, between Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue, early designs 1945; development plan 1949 (Globe & Mail (Toronto), 17 March 1945, 15, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 268, illus. & descrip.; Toronto Star, 19 Nov. 1984, A6, illus. & descrip.; and 29 June 2002, Section M, p. 1 and p. 9, illus. & descrip.)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., plan for Westwood Six Points, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 269, illus. & descrip.)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., plan for Humber Valley Village East Shopping Centre, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 270, illus. & descrip.)
MISSISSAUGA, ONT., Grove Farm Housing Development, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 270, illus. & descrip.)
RICHMOND HILL, ONT., a “garden city” industrial development, facing Yonge Street and backing onto CNR Railway lands, for the Richmond Hill Development Co., 1952 (Financial Post [Toronto], 26 July 1952, 9, descrip.)
ETOBICOKE, ONT., Cloverdale Shopping Centre, on The East Mall, Dundas Street West at Hwy 427, 1954 with Max Roth, architect of Montreal (Financial Post [Toronto], 20 Feb. 1954, 58, descrip.; and 26 June 1954, 17, descrip.)
SCARBOROUGH, ONT. Bendale Park Subdivision, north of Lawrence Avenue East, between McCowan Road and Bellamy Road, c. 1955 (Globe & Mail [Toronto], 23 Sept. 2022, p. H 2, illus. & descrip.)
KING TOWNSHIP, a luxury housing development, with 200 houses on large one acre lots, each costing $30,000, 1955 (Gazette [Montreal], 17 June 1955, 11)
AJAX, ONT., large tract housing development, for the Duffins Creek Land Development Co., on 2,200 acres, 1959 (Financial Post [Toronto], 12 Dec. 1959, 20, descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., a residence for E.G. Faludi, architect, at 12 Chestnut Park Road, Rosedale, 1961 (National Post [Toronto], 22 Dec. 2001, p. PH 4, illus. and detailed descrip.)
NORTH YORK, ONT., O'Connor Hills Subdivision, west of Victoria Park Avenue and north of Lawrence Avenue East, 1967, with Deacon, Arnett & Murray, Architects (Canadian Building, xvii, May 1967, 42-43)
CORNWALL, ONT., Urban Renewal Plan, with new Civic Centre, Convention Hall, and enclosed downtown mall, 1967 (Ottawa Journal, 15 Dec. 1967, 49; and 25 May 1968, 5)
E.G. FALUDI (works in Italy and Belgium)
ROME, ITALY, Waiting Room at the Rome Airport, 1927 (L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], December 1927, illus.; Ludwig Hilberseimer, Beton Als Gestalter [Berlin], 1928, 80, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, designs for weekend houses, 1931 (Domus [Milan], iv, Aug. 1931, 59-62, illus.)
MESTRE, ITALY, large residence for Guido Rossi, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, January 1932, 13-14, illus. & descrip.)
BORGOLOLOMBARDO, ITALY, a vacation house for an unnamed client, and designs for 6 small villas using reinforced concrete construction, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, January 1932, 31-32, illus. & descrip.)
ROME, ITALY, Aeronautical Exposition Pavilion, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, February 1932, 77-78, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, outdoor Celotex Building Products Pavilion, at the Milan Trade Fair, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, February 1932, 77, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, indoor Display Stand at the Fruit Products Exhibition, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, February 1932, 78, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, outdoor Tom Thumb Golf Pavilion, at the Milan Trade Fair, 1931 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, February 1932, 79, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, The G.E. Falck Italian Metallurgical Industry Association Competition for the use of Steel in Buildings, 1932, with two winning entries from Griffini, Manfredi & Faludi (Architettura [Milan], v, July 1932, 369-383, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], iv, July/Aug. 1932, Special Supplement Issue, pp 11 and pp. 26-29, illus. )
MILAN, ITALY, Vacation House Prototypes, a group of five homes erected at the outdoor Milan Triennale Exhibition, 1933 (Casabella [Milan], vi, June 1933, 24-27, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], v, May 1933, 216-17, illus.; and July-Aug. 1933, 341-352, illus.; Architettura [Milan], vi, Special Triennale Issue, 1933, 54-57, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Case Populari di Milano, a small 3 storey residential block of 6 units, erected at the outdoor Milan Triennale Exhibition, 1933 (Architettura [Milan], vi, Special Triennale Issue, 1933, 66-67, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Competition entry for the San Siro Housing Estate in Milan, 1933 (Architettura [Milan], xii, January 1933, 57-58, illus. & descrip.)
VERONA, ITALY, Master Plan, awarded First Prize, tied with another winner for First Premium, 1933 (Rassegna di Architettura (Milan), v, 15 Feb. 1933, 77-79, illus.; Architettura [Milan], xii, August 1933, 515. illus.)
LODI, ITALY, Institute for Orphan Children, 1933-34 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], v, April 1933, illus.; and vi, Nov. 1934, 419-427, illus.; Architettura [Milan], xii, March 1933, 175-76, illus. & descrip.; and xiii, Dec. 1934, 727-730, illus.)
COMO, ITALY, competition entry for the Covered Public Market in Como, 1933 (Rassegna di Architettura (Milan), v, 15 March 1933, 128; Architettura [Milan], xii, November 1933, 728-29, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Olympia Theatre, rebuilding and modernization, 1934 (Architectural Record [New York], lxvii, Feb. 1935, 123-24, illus. & descrip.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vii, September 1935, 329-331, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Lyric Theatre, 1934 (Casabella [Milan], No. 74, Feb. 1934, 44, illus.; L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxix, Dec. 1934, 427-29, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vi, April 1934, 144-47, illus.; Architectural Record [New York], lxvii, Feb. 1935, 125-28, illus. & descrip.)
MILAN, ITALY, Excelsior Theatre, 1934 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vi, April 1934, 146-50, illus.; Sinkentiku [Tokyo], October 1934, illus.; L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxix, Dec. 1934, illus.)
ROME, ITALY, Aeronautical Exhibition, the Parachute Room display, 1934 (Casabella [Milan], No. 80, Aug. 1934, 18, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Triplex Gas Appliance Pavilion at the Milan Trade Fair, 1934 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vi, May 1934, 193, illus.; Architettura [Milan], July 1934, 439, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Rayon in the Home Pavilion, at the Milan Trade Fair, 1934 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vi, May 1934, 194, illus.)
NOVARA, ITALY, extensive remodelling and modernization of the Faraggiana Theatre, 1935 (Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vii, September 1935, 325-328, illus.; Bruno Moretti,, Teatri, pub. Ulrico Hoepli Editore, Milan, 1936, 5-7, illus. & descrip.)
MILAN, ITALY, Viscosa Exhibit Pavilion, 1935 (L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxx, April 1935, 115-21, illus.; and xxxi, April 1936, 92, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vii, May 1935, 167-171, illus.; and viii, 1936, 157-59, illus.; Agnoldomenico Pica, Nuova Architettura Italiana, [Milan], 1936, 52-53, descrip., and 205, illus.)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, The SNIA Viscosa Exhibit Pavilion, at the Exposition Universelle et Internationale, 1935; demol. early 1936 (Agnoldomenico Pica, Nuova Architettura Italiana, [Milan], 1936, 53, descrip. and 206, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, Italrayon Pavilion (also called Rayon Industries Exhibit Pavilion), 1934 (L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxx, April 1935, 128-131, illus.; Casabella [Milan], No. 89, 1935, 10-11, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vii, May 1935, 176-80, illus.)
ROME, ITALY, project for an Auditorium, 1935 (L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxx, April 1935, 132-40, illus.; Casabella [Milan], No. 91, 1935, 10-13, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], vii, Dec. 1935, 434-445, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, the Villa Tortoli, on the Via Spinola, 1935-36 (Domus [Milan], No. 100, April 1936, illus. & plans.)
APRILIA, ITALY, master plan for the town, 1936 (Architettura [Milan], ix, May 1936, 210, illus.; Rassegna Di Architettura [Milan], viii, June 1938, 206-215, illus.)
ROME, ITALY, The Rayon Exhibit Hall at the National Textile Exhibition, 1937 (Casabella [Milan], No. 121, Jan. 1938, 24-25, illus.)
PADOVA, ITALY, medical clinic, 1937 (L'Architettura Italiana [Turin], xxxii, Nov. 1937, 333-39, illus.)
CERVIA, ITALY, Holiday Home for Children, 1937-38 (Architect's Journal [London], xc, 23 Nov. 1939, 629-34, illus. & descrip.; Architectural Review [London], lxxxvii, June, 1940, 202-04, illus. & descrip.; Casabella [Milan], No. 150, June 1940, 16-23, illus.)
MILAN, ITALY, the new Tessili Store, c. 1939 (A. Bianchetti, IL Negozio [New Stores], 1947, 75, illus.)
E.G. FALUDI (Selected essays in Canadian and American sources)
1941 - “Housing and the Shape of Things to Come”, in Financial Post [Toronto], 1 Nov. 1941, 3
1941 - “Building for a Better Canada”, in Financial Post [Toronto], 13 December 1941, 20
1943 - “Housing: A Challenge to Canada”, in ArtsCanada, vol. 1, 1943-44, 52-57, illus.
1945 - “The Prefabricated House Industry”, in R.A.I.C. Journal, xxii, March 1945, 56-62, illus.
1947 - “Planning Progress in Canada”, in the American Institute of Planners Journal, xiii, Summer-Fall, 1947, 9-13; and xiv, Winter 1948, 29-34.
1947 - “Railway Stations in Italy”, in R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiv, Nov. 1947, 406-414, illus. & descrip.
1948 - “What Ails Our Cities”, in Maclean's Magazine [Toronto], 15 April 1948
1949 - “The Trend in Shopping Centres”, in R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Sept. 1949, 267-279, illus. & descrip.
1950 - “Designing New Canadian Communities: Theory & Practice”, in the American Institute of Planners Journal, xvi, Spring 1950, 71-79, and Summer 1950, 140-47.
1965 – Interview with Dr. E.G. Faludi, with photographic port., in Financial Post [Toronto], 20 Feb. 1965, 56, text and illus.