Collections : [Avery Drawings & Archives]

The architectural drawings in the collection represent 20 projects dated from the 1900s to the 1920s. Each project was catalogued separately in the online catalog. This finding aid provides a link to each project's associated record. Sheet level description can be found in these project-level records. Each sheet is individually accessioned with numbers ranging from 1000.006.00001 through .00111.

Drawings executed by Le Corbusier as illustrations for lectures on architecture and city planning delivered at Columbia University in 1935 and 1961. Notations are in French. Drawings range from approximately seven to twenty feet long.

This collection contains materials related to a full range of Blake's personal, professional, and academic lives. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1980s through the early 2000s. His professional and faculty papers document many of his interests, and primarily include published and unpublished lectures and articles. Although Blake delivered his lectures at various architectural schools in the United States and abroad, the specific locations of the lectures are not usually recorded on the documents. In addition, many articles he wrote for publication appear as annotated typescripts. There are also significant papers related to publication of his memoir No Place Like Utopia (Knopf, 1993), including correspondence and some production records. Throughout the professional and faculty papers are also found a large number of reference files relating to modern architecture, art, design, urbanism, technology, and current events, compiled over many decades. The collection also contains correspondence with personal friends, clients, and professional and academic colleagues. There is an especially significant amount of correspondence and clippings related to Patwant Singh, a Sikh writer, commentator, journalist, editor, and publisher, with whom Blake was a close friend. There are also many materials including correspondence, typescripts, and book production records related to Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph, with whom Blake was also close. Architectural project records include original and reprographic drawings and photographs for 40 residential and institutional designs, located primarily in New York City and the surrounding region. Of particular note are drawings and papers related to Blake's important Pin Wheel House (1954) in Water Mill, New York. In addition, there are drawings related to the American National Exhibition in Moscow (1959). Finally, there is a significant number of drawings, photographs, and correspondence related to the Benjamin Gerson Residence (1999-2003) in Johnsonburg, New Jersey, one of Blake's last architectural projects.