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Edith Elmer Wood (1871-1945) was a US housing reformer. As lobbyist, writer, and government consultant, she helped define New Deal housing policy. After graduating from Smith College in 1890, she wrote fiction and undertook settlement house work before launching her influential, life-long career in housing reforms. The bulk of the collection is letters but other kinds of material is included, such as drawings, blueprints, manuscripts, maps, photographs, pamphlets, news clippings and hotel receipts.

Oscar Newman (1935-2004) was an architect, planner, and theorist. Newman was best known for his theories on crime prevention and residential design, which he introduced in his book Defensible Space. This collection contains the majority of Newman's projects and writings spanning from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. It consists of textual materials in the form of correspondence, notes, written and typed drafts, and publications; accompanied by prints, negatives, slides, drawings, and audio/visual material.

Roger Halle (1919-1993), a research architect who devoted his professional practice to reducing the cost of construction. After receiving a graduate degree in architecture from Princeton University, he worked for several architectural firms; and.later started his own practice in New York City and Caracas, Venezuela. Halle held 12 patents in 17 countries for his work. In 1964, he introduced the Halle Building System, and in 1972 he established Halle Building System Company Inc. He wrote many articles to promote his ideas on how to build more with less cost and was published in several publication including Architecture & Engineering News, Progressive Architecture, and The New York Times. He also gave talks and lectures at Princeton University, New York Institute of Technology and HUD-NIBS Conference.

Walter Curt Behrendt (1884-1945) was a German-American architect and an active advocate of German modernism. The collection is composed primarily of lectures and writings.