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This collection contains reprographic architectural drawings for the Empire State Building; photographs of the demolition of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which occupied the Fifth Avenue site; photographs of the Empire State Building under construction, circa 1930-1931 (one photograph shows former governor Alfred E. Smith standing in the building during construction), including 232 photographs by photographer Lewis Hine; photographs showing the building after completion, circa 1931-1956; scrapbooks of clippings of articles about the building, 1930-1957; and illustrations of the Empire State Building, circa 1930s-1960s. These subgroups of materials also have records in CLIO with more detailed descriptions of items; for these records, please search under "Empire State Building" or "Shreve, Lamb & Harmon" or "Hine, Lewis Wickes".

The bulk of this collection consists of more than 22,000 black and white photographic negatives and more than 10,600 black and white photographic prints documenting commercial, institutional, religious, and residential architecture throughout the United States, with particular emphasis on sites in the mid-Atlantic region. These images date from the mid-1930s to Molitor's retirement in the mid-1980s, with the great majority of images created between 1946 and 1980. Also included in the collection are images of landscapes, industrial design, portraits, and events of personal significance to Molitor. In some select cases, color prints, color negatives, color transparencies, and 35mm slides are also available in addition to or instead of the black and white negatives and prints. Researchers are also advised that documents in this collection indicate that when faced with a lack of storage space in 1973, Molitor contacted clients to return inactive negatives that they had comissioned before 1955. In at least some cases, those clients declined to accept their negatives and Molitor subsequently destroyed the images. Thus, this collection has lacunae in the negatives series.

This collection includes research materials, publication manuscripts, notes, correspondence, and architectural drawings related to the academic study, teaching, and writings of architect and urban historian Richard Plunz. The bulk of the collection contains research papers, administrative records, notes, and sketches, as well as reproductions of architectural drawings by other architects for various properties owned by the New York City Housing Authority, gathered by Plunz and his Urban Design Research Group students during their studies on the concept of "defensible space" in New York City public housing. Also included in this collection are notes and draft manuscripts for "Design and the Public Good" [Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1982], Plunz's compilation of writings by architect and educator Serge Chermayeff, as well as general research files about and correspondence with Chermayeff. Lastly, a small body of reproduced drawings documents various historic structures on Ellis Island, the 39th St. Ferry Terminal building in Manhattan and Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn.

This collection includes original and reprographic presentation, working, and rental drawings for projects in the New York City area, including the Ferris Booth Hall and Dormitory at Columbia University; the Empire State Building; Hunter College; the Johns-Manville Sales Corporation exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair; the Julliard School of Music; New York City Hall additions and renovations; National City Bank of New York; P.S. 302 and P.S. 307 in Brooklyn; and the United Engineering Center at the United Nations Plaza.