Architecture 588 Thesis Prep: Home

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.