This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The Charles H. Warner Jr. collection includes a wide variety of materials. Generally, these materials are divided into the following groupings: papers, presentation materials, publication, photographic materials, and photographs. Papers may include, among other materials: correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, various ephemera, notes, and other documents pertinent to individual projects. Publications include articles concerning specific projects written in magazines and other periodicals. Presentation materials may include reprints and photocopies of original drawings, project books, photographs of models, and photocopies of photographs, and various materials mounted for display and similar items. Photographic materials generally encompasses photograph negatives and contact sheets, photograph slides, and transparencies. Finally, photographs are sometimes divided into more specific categories like construction photographs, interior photographs and exterior photographs where appropriate.
Comprised of four subseries: Academic Projects, Hotel Projects, Other Projects, and Unidentified Projects. The first subseries contains various records associated with Warner's work on college and school campuses, on various library projects and on a few academic-related projects. Subseries II contains all records pertaining to hotel facilities. Subseries III encompasses those records relevant to his diverse work outside of the realm of academic and hotel projects. Lastly, the fourth subseries groups together those materials that were unable to be exactly identified with a specific project, but are still grouped by the same headings used in the other subseries.
Series II: Office/Professional Records
This series is generally composed of those materials relevant to the day to day activities of the various offices of Warner. Most of records belong to his years with WBTL. When possible, items are grouped under a unifying heading rather than their general format.
Series III: Architectural Drawings
The collection includes over 3,500 drawings. A preliminary inventory available. Please email the department for an electoric copy.
1940s-1990s
The collection is made up of two series: Project Records and Office/Professional Records. Project Records is divided into four subseires: Academic Projects, Hotel Projects, Other Projects, and Unidentified Projects.
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Permission to publish must be obtained in writing from the Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, 1172 Amsterdam Ave., Mail Code 0301, New York, NY 10027.
Charles H. Warner, Jr. architectural records, 1940s-1990s, Department of Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
This collection was processed by Lauren Robbins, Graduate Intern, in 2014-2015.
2015-06-10 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Charles H. Warner Jr. was a New York-based architect active from the 1940s through the 1990s. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1933 and from Columbia University with a master's degree in architecture in 1938. He later returned to teach architecture at Columbia and also served as a professor at Cornell University.
As a practicing architect, Warner spent most of his career with the firm Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde of which he was a founding member and senior partner. Even after his retirement in 1981, he acted as a full-time consultant to the firm, focusing his attention on Design and Professional Development. Before establishing WBTL, he worked for architect Morris Kettchum Jr. and industrial designer Donald Deskey from 1937 to 1940, as a partner with Harold Eliot Leeds from 1947 to 1954 and in private practice from 1954 to 1956. Warner designed many buildings on college campuses in the United States and abroad. Most notable was his extensive work on his alma mater Wesleyan's campus, but he was also highly active on the campuses of Cornell, Brown University and Hofstra University. Warner was also instrumental in the firm's planning of campus of Kingsborough Community College.
Additionally, Warner built many hotels, working extensively with Hilton Hotels to build new establishments all over the world. His work in foreign countries underscores his core architectural principle of designing "in context" or incorporating local culture and tradition into his buildings. Some of his more well-known hotel projects include the Ramses Hilton in Cairo and the Caribe Hilton in San Juan.
His work also comprises a wide assortment of other projects, which account for some of his most interesting work. As a young architect he helped design the Paris Theatre in New York with Leeds. He also served as a design consultant on the Supreme Court Building in San Juan in partnership with the Puerto Rican firm Toro-Ferrer. With WBTL he was involved with a special project for which the firm designed a manned laboratory satellite for NASA. In addition, early plans for alterations to the residence of ballet superstars Mikhail Baryshinov and Lisa Rinehart in the 1990s, though it is not clear from the records if the project was ever completed. Additionally, Warner and his various partners designed conference centers, churches and retail spaces as well as undertaking city planning and a diverse assortment of other projects.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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