Holdings

The VRC acquires visual materials that support the needs and goals of the School and its programs: Architecture, Urban Planning, Historic Preservation, Smart Growth, and Real Estate Development. Curators select new materials with input from faculty and students in response to ever-changing theories about the built environment. There are always new buildings going up, planning theories being put into practice, and new preservation projects to document.  When new courses are added to the curriculum, additions are made in those subject areas.  Sources for images and DVD/videos include commercial vendors, faculty donations from travel and research, and requests for copy work.

Over the years, the VRC has been the beneficiary of a number of important historic collections. When receiving such gifts, the aim is to incorporate as many of the images as possible into the existing classification scheme. Gifts to the VRC include the following works:

• Slides, photographs, notes, and drawings from noted preservation architects Orin M. Bullock, Jr. and H. Chandlee Forman and Baltimore architect Alexander S. Cochran;

• Photographs and early 1900s book plates from Otto Gaertner, donated by his daughter, historian Elizabeth Stites

• Images donated by professors who have traveled the world. Holdings include the following topics:

• Prehistoric, primitive, and ancient sites

• Archaeological sites including ancient Mayan locations in South and Central America; Pre-Columbian; Pompeii; Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia; Native American Indian sites in the United States; and temples in China, Japan, and India

• Underwater archaeology

• Vernacular architecture from around the world

• Historic and modern images from Asia, Africa, and Europe

• Rock-cut churches from Africa and India

• Modern Scandinavian architecture

• Italian Renaissance architecture

• Sites in Spain, including the Alhambra, Catalan architecture, and works by Antonio Gaudi

• An array of U.S. sites from coast to coast, including California Mission style and 20th-century architecture, southern plantations, Washington, D.C., embassies, federal buildings and monuments, and a range of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings

• World’s Expositions and Fairs

• New Urbanist communities such as Seaside and Celebration, Florida, and Kentlands and King Farm in Maryland

• Historic sites such as Cape May, New Jersey, and Kiplin Hall, England

• Aerial photography of land uses from commercial centers to rural landscapes

• Unbuilt projects

• Substantial architectural typography from “A” (abandoned buildings) to “Z” (ziggurats)

• Architectural drawing