Graham Resource Center Research Guide: Architecture

ARTstor is a digital library of more than one million large-file art and architecture images with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images. Access is restricted to IIT students, faculty, and staff.

MADCAD is a reference database containing building codes, knowledge-based design solutions, and guidelines to meet the codes. MADCAD provides access to cross-referenced collections of building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, and maintenance codes from BOCA, SBCCI, ICBO, ICC, and NFPA. Beyond compiling national standards, it gives you immediate access to comprehensive state and local codes. Only accessible to IIT users.

JSTOR archives historical peer-reviewed materials and makes them available as full texts. Architectural highlights include The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (1945-2005), Winterthur Portfolio (1964-2007), and Perspecta (1952-2003). JSTOR is only available on campus computers or with a valid IIT log in.

Hierarchical thesaurus of nearly 900,000 places. "The TGN provides vernacular and English names of places, variant names in other languages, and whenever possible, historical names. The record for a place may also contain geographical coordinates, dates, and notes."

The AAT is a structured vocabulary relating to architecture, fine arts, and related topics. Useful in defining the best term for a search, related topics, and the history of a term's use.
Should one search for Brutalist, Brutalism, or Neo-Brutalist?
Find the answer in the AAT.

Archive Grid searches thousands of archives worldwide for content, taking the researcher beyond the obvious choices. For example, you can research Paul Rudolph at the Yale Archives, but you can also discover an audio recording from 1966 at MOMA, correspondence with Peter Blake at Columbia University, and Henry Proskauer's clipping collection on Rudolph at the Getty Research Institute. This resource must be accessed from a library computer.

CumInCAD is a cumulative index of publications about computer aided architectural design. It includes bibliographic information about over 6.000 papers from journals and conferences such as ACADIA, CAADRIA, ECAADE, SIGRADI, CAAD Futures and others. All papers include full abstracts. Full texts of some 3.500 papers are also available, however, only to eCAADe members.

The Built Works Registry (BWR) is a collaborative project funded by a 2010 Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant. The goal of BWR is to create and develop a freely available registry of architectural works and the built environment. The BWR seeks to assist with providing a unique identifier for specific built works. The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, Artstor and the Getty Research Institute (GRI) are the principal collaborators for this project.

An immense digital repository, this brilliant research tool allows the user to conduct full-text searches on millions of books, many of which are copyright-protected. Use it to locate books with even one mention of your topic, and then find it in a library you can borrow from. You can also use it to identify specific page numbers of a search.

Scoping and technical requirements for accessibility to buildings and facilities by individuals with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Exploring parametric modeling, BIM, and Design Technology, this site features many educational tutorials, book reviews, forums, and more.

IAWA documents the history of women's involvement in architecture by collecting, preserving, storing, and making available the professional papers of women architects, landscape architects, designers, architectural historians and critics, and urban planners, as well as the records of women's architectural organizations.

More than 1000 important buildings from around the world and across history are illustrated on this web site, with photographic images, architectural drawings, discussion, bibliography, architect info, and live 3D walkthrough computer models.

Explore Chicago architecture and architectural pedagogy through interviews with 20th Century masters. Firsthand accounts by Caldwell, Ando, Bunshaft, Weese, Rudolph, Danforth, Goldberg, Keck, and many others. Includes a master index of names & buildings.

Based in Washington, D.C., the AIA has been the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners since 1857.

A photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage. The database includes 14,800 photos of 755 sites in twenty countries, with background information and virtual tours, as well as bibliographies by country.

Comprehensive architecture news with separate news feeds for North America, Asia, Europe, Middle East/ Africa, and South America, as well as employment listings.

A national information, technical assistance, and research center that evaluates, develops, and promotes accessible and universal design in housing, commercial and public facilities, outdoor environments, and products. This site features downloadable CUD publications.

ACADIA facilitates communication and critical thinking regarding the use of computers in architecture, planning and building science. Conference proceedings and papers are available at this site.

ArchNet is an international online community for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, conservationists, and scholars, with a focus on Muslim cultures and civilisations. It features an impressive array of searchable references, publications, and images.

CEBE Transactions is a peer reviewed journal publishing case studies, project reports, essays, research findings, reviews and other work relating to teaching, learning, scholarship and the research-teaching-consultancy link in Built Environment disciplines.

Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free." From the 2007 DLD Conference, Munich; www.dld-conference.com

Architect Thom Mayne's "whistle-stop tour of the buildings he's created".

Looking back over his long career, architect Moshe Safdie delves into four of his design projects and explains how he labored to make each one truly unique for its site and its users.

Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity on Open Source Architecture and world housing crises.

Steven Holl argues the 11 points that frame his book 'Urbanisms: Working with Doubt', and discusses his design of the Linked Hybrid complex in Beijing.

The Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment is an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment; Ban was the 2008 recipient.

The Ulrich Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment is an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for architecture and the environment; Piano was the 2006 recipient.

From the Areen Architecture Series at the Department of Architecture and Design, the American University of Beirut: "On OMA's Work" by Rem Koolhaas.

The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals is published by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. It offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles on architecture and design, including bibliographic descriptions on subjects such as the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation, and interior design and decoration. It contains over seven hundred American and international journals including not only scholarly and popular periodical literature, but also publications of professional associations, American state and regional periodicals, and the major serials on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Articles are included from key publications such as American Architect, Domus, Dwell, and El Croquis, as well as architectural articles from art and planning journals.