He was the son of Charles François Gabriel, a pastor, and Louise Catherine Walther.

[1] Recordon attended the Realschule in Basel and then served as an architectural intern to Samuel Késer-Doret in Vevey.

In 1865–1868, he studied and worked with Gottfried Semper at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, then with Léo Châtelain in Neuchâtel.

[2][3][4] In 1889, he took fifth place in the international competition to design the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne.

In Zurich, he built the machinery laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique (1896–1900) and the French Evangelical Church (1900–1902).