Collections : [Avery Drawings & Archives]

Included are architectural drawings, surveys, maps, and site proposals, for Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, designed primarily by McKim, Mead & White. Other architects represented include Adams & Woodbridge; Arnold Brunner (who designed the School of Mines); Eggers & Higgins; the Columbia University Buildings and Grounds Department; Howells and Stokes (designed St. Paul's Chapel); Reinhard, Hofmeister and Wahlquist; and James Gamble Rogers. Drawings for buildings no longer in existence or never constructed and drawings for later alterations, are included. Architectural drawings of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, and surveys of the asylum site prepared for Columbia, 1888-1894. Also included are site plans and proposals, surveys, and maps, circa 1890s-1910s, showing the surrounding area, including such institutions as the Jewish Theological Seminary, St. Luke's Home, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grant's Tomb, and others. Drawings for the Womans's Hospital in the State of New York (designed by Allen & Collens, erected 1903, demolished in the 1970s), circa 1903-1914, are also included. This building was used to house the Columbia School of the Arts in the 1960s since it was located near the campus.

Architectural drawings (no longer in current use by Facilities Management), transferred to the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library from the Dept. of Facilities Management pertaining to proposals, construction, alteration and addition of properties formerly used or owned, and buildings demolished or still extant. The dates of the materials span 1895 to today. The drawings include plans showing the heating and ventilation systems, electrical and plumbing details, and some original construction materials. Some of the buildings represented in this collection are: Avery Hall; Earl Hall; St. Paul's Chapel; Teachers College; Low Library; Ferris Booth; and Uris Hall, as well as details of fences; steps; statues; and bronze railings. Some of the architects hired by the University include McKim, Mead & White, Howells & Stokes, James Gamble Rogers, and Allen & Collens, as well as builder and architect R. Guastavino Co. who was responsible for the domes and vaults of St. Paul's Chapel, Earl Hall, and the Van Amringe Memorial

Collection includes James Renwick's sketches, 1813, for the layout of Columbia University's second campus on Park Row (there have been four campuses to date: the first on Wall Street, the third on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, and the current campus in Morningside Heights), and a medal awarded him, 1824, by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. James Renwick, Jr. is represented by his architectural drawings of St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, which he designed. Some of the drawings are signed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Also, published drawings of the Cathedral, 1886; negatives and photographs, circa 1860s, showing the Cathedral under construction; interior and exterior photographs, circa 1930s-1960s, of the Cathedral; and photographs of Grace Church, New York, also designed by James Renwick, Jr. Renwick family correspondence, 1930s, and typescript copies of 19th century Renwick family correspondence relating to family history and genealogy; photographs of James Renwick, Jr; typescript copies of family Bible records, 1792-1863; Renwick coat of arms.

The collection contains primarily architectural drawing reproductions documenting the site history of Columbia University's Geology Library from Schermerhorn Hall on Columbia Unversity's Morningside campus to, later, the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. The drawings are largely floor plans and some building elevations of both the early and later sites, but the collection also includes a survey map of the Palisades, N.Y. site, and site plans for the Thomas W. Lamont, Esq. Country Residence and Gardens. Also included are 9 student drawings of the Geology and Zoology Library in Schermerhorn Hall by School of Mines student Eugene B. Sieminski, Jr. dated 1958. Architects represented include McKim, Mead, and White, Paver & Wildfoerster, and Olmstead Brothers Landscaper Architects.

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.

Architectural drawings and photographs of buildings designed by the firm dating approximately from its founding to the 1950s. Among those represented are buildings at the World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893; Pennsylvania Railroad Station, New York, 1906-1910; restoration, 1903, of the White House, Washington, D.C.; buildings at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, New York; Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.; E.W. Morgan mansion; Municipal Building, N.Y.; Col. Elliott Shepherd House, Scarborough, N.Y.; buildings at Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.; Bellevue Hospital, New York; various New York City residences; and others. Also included are competition drawings for the New York Public Library; miscellaneous drawings and sketches; photographs of the partners and of other members of the firm; lists of the firm's work; clippings of articles about the firm; lists of the firm's employees; billing records, 1953-1955; account books, 1940s-1950s; bank books, 1895-1955; award certificates; and other office miscellany.

Legal contracts between the Owners, Managers, Architects and Builders regarding various aspects of the construction work on Theatre #10 of the Metropolitan Square Development project. The contracts detail what was specifically to be done by the construction crews and what was and was not included in each part of the specified construction process.