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Avery Drawings & Archives Collections |
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Summary InformationAbstract
At a Glance
Arrangement
DescriptionScope and contentThe collection was transferred from The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture to Avery Drawings & Archives in 2014. The collection was organized and described by the Buell Center prior to its transfer. The original description has been maintained. The series groupings were established after the transfer to the archive.
Using the CollectionAvery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Restrictions on AccessThis collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. Portions of the collection are restricted. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu. Immediate Source of AcquisitionThis collection was transferred to Avery Drawings & Archives in 2014 (acq. 2014.014). An addition was transferred in 2022 (acq. 2022.006). Materials from the 2022.006 transfer are in Boxes 8, 14, 15, 22, 29, and 30; all other boxes are from the 2014.014 transfer. About the Finding Aid / Processing InformationColumbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Processing InformationThe inventory and historical narrative for the collection was compiled by Buell Center staff prior to the collections transfer to Avery Drawings & Archives in 2014. The collection was reformated and converted into ArchivesSpace by Avery Archivist Shelley Hayreh in 2020. Additions added to the collection Decenber 2022 were inventoried by Calvin Conley Harrison (Buell Graudate Assistant) and converted into ArchivesSpace by Shelley Hayreh January 2023. Subject HeadingsThe subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives. All links open new windows. Genre/Form
Subject
History / Biographical NoteBiographical sketchPlanning for a "Study Center for American Architecture" at Columbia University began as early as 1979. Major early proponents included Phyllis Lambert, James Polshek, Edgar Kaufman, Adolf Placzek, Robert AM Stern, Ada Louise Huxtable, Vincent Scully, and IM Pei. Securing funding, space, and an identity distinct from Avery or GSAP [Preservation had yet to be added] were of primary concern. Members of the Advisory Board searched for donors to supply the $5 million necessary to establish the center. Initial funding was provided by the Kaplan Foundation, Phyllis Lambert, and Columbia alumnus and architect Temple Hoyne Buell. Columbia offered space for the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture in the building known as the Maison Française. The oldest building on Morningside campus, it had housed several departments and organizations over the 20th century, and required extensive renovation. Robert AM Stern served as the Center's first director, from 1983 to 1988. The Center's inaugural project was American Architecture: Innovation and Tradition, an exhibition showcasing the diversity of America's regional architecture. Stern oversaw symposia on Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, architectural publishing in America, Hispanic traditions in American architecture, and the first "Buell Talks." He secured funding for an oral history project (the Johnson Tapes), and published Vincent Scully's Gwendolyn Wright served as the Center's second director, from 1989 to 1992. Among other projects, she oversaw a symposium about German influences on American architecture and organized the Center's first major seminar series, "History of American Architecture." Lectures from leading architects and historians were published in The Joan Ockman served as director for over a decade, between 1993 and 2008. Under her directorship, the Buell Center worked to fundraise in support of more substantial projects and fellowships that would further define its identity as a premier institution in American architecture. Ockman's tenure began with a 1994 symposium on Frank Lloyd Wright, and her early directorship was characterized by several lecture and seminar series: "Constructive Criticism" (1995), "Public Space" (1995), "Landscape As Social Space (1996), "Imagining America" (1997), "Culture Is Our Business," (2001) "Out of Ground Zero," (2002) and "Modern Architecture American Modernity" (2004-2005). Her later directorship was characterized by publications, panels, and conferences as opposed to series. Notable publications included Reinhold Martin began his directorship in 2008 with the exhibition Utopia's Ghost: Postmodernism Rediscovered. The Center's recent projects, including "Public Housing: A New Conversation" (2009), |