The entire article is included in the downloadable document. What follows are the passages that most directly illuminate the symbolic program.

The Philosophical Foundation: Geometry as Emotional Language

Why geometric abstraction? Why not traditional allegory?

Rayne Adams begins by defending the decision to use pure geometric forms rather than conventional symbolism:

"Most designs are conceived and executed with little thought... The common run of decorative design follows along no intellectual line of effort which is in any way exacting. If we have to portray winter, we picture it as 'a weak old king who feels, like Lear, upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears.' And all select a bluebird as a symbol for happiness."

This conventional symbolism, Adams argues, is "labored" and "lacks subtlety." But there's another path:

"The dominant idea which they have sought to set forth is the significance of geometric lines and their capacity to symbolize emotions and abstractions of thought and deed... A consensus of opinion has established certain characteristics which are associated with types of line and of form. For vexation or perplexity we all scribble a confused scrawl; the flowing curve suggests ease and grace; the circle suggests completeness."

This is the conceptual core: geometric forms can carry emotional meaning just as powerfully as figurative symbols—if designed with intention.

The Structure: Two Parallel Series

Each grille corresponds to a stage of human development, divided into mental and physical progression:

"In these reliefs and grilles they have envisaged this life under two commonly accepted categories,—that which sets forth the physical life and that which sets forth the mental life."

"Certain phases of development under each category are presented by a panel figure in relief supplemented by a grille design placed immediately beneath."

The Mental Series (consciousness developing):

1. Agitation — "the first conscious stirrings; the first doubts, the first questions and uncertainties"
2. Vision — "the birth of conscious planning and the formation of a definite and compelling ideal"
3. Courage — "the man at work,—following out, with firm resolution and steady purpose, those ideals which are his, beset by obstructions, yet achieving"
4. Achievement — "the fulfillment of his work"

The Physical Series (action manifesting):

• Activity, Effort and Endurance, and Success — "exemplifies in its way the characteristics presented by the series showing the mental development"

How to Read the Grilles: The Case of Vision

Adams provides a detailed reading of one grille to show how the geometric language works:

"In the relief, showing a crouching figure, we see the vacant look,—'the light drawn backwards from the eye'—betokening introspection and concentration; the bowed head characteristic of the thinker, and the supporting hands,—that gesture which has always something pathetic about it—as though the strong hands of the body were giving support to the troubled mind."

The corresponding grille translates this into pure geometry:

"The mental world of this thinker is symbolically represented by the spiral convolutions, expanding in wider and wider sweeps, while his inspirations or impulses for action are marked by the indented, radial lines."

"The deepest indentation marks the definitive and determining inspiration under the aegis of which he will, for good or ill, follow through his life to some significant end."

"The grille design supplementary to this relief bears out this thought. The dominant inspiration is represented by the continuous ray, which, passing through the barriers of doubt and ignorance, pursues its unbroken way. Other inspirations, other compulsions, are represented by the non-continuous rays; these are less perfect. The tangent rings of successively increasing diameter represent the successive phases of his life."

This is how the system works: each geometric element—spirals, rays, rings, indentations—carries specific symbolic meaning, allowing complex psychological states to be expressed through abstract pattern.

The Grilles and Reliefs as Unified Language

Critically, the grilles are not decoration—they are translation:

"The supplementary grille panels, wholly geometric in conception, present a symbolism which, interpreted, bears out the meaning of the corresponding relief figures."

The bas-relief shows a human figure embodying an emotional state. The grille beneath translates that same state into geometric abstraction. Together, they form a complete symbolic language: one figurative, one abstract, both expressing the same idea.

Adams' Final Assessment

Despite the intellectual complexity of the program, Adams judges the work on aesthetic grounds:

"Whether the union has brought forth progeny whose aesthetic quality will stand, is something for the critics to decide. As an expression of a method of achievement, the work may be characterized assuredly as not lacking in the spirit of adventure."

"For my own part, I confess that I have rarely looked upon relief figures which have struck me as more worthy of praise than these. To say that they are masterly is not enough; they hold, for those of us who care for abstractions, what is far more important,—something of genius."

Primary Source Document

The complete 1929 article by Rayne Adams is available as an attached document for researchers who wish to read the full philosophical argument and additional symbolic details.

[Download: "The Reliefs and Grilles of the Chanin Building Vestibules" – Architectural Forum, May 1929]

What this text provides:

A contemporary explanation of the grilles by their creators, allowing Ikonographia's photographic documentation to be read with the precision the artists intended—not through later guesswork, but through direct alignment between visual evidence and original meaning.