This 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.
The 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.
Series I: Administrative & Financial Records
This series is divided into four subseries: Board of Advisors, Administrative, Finances, and Fundraising. The records in each subseries are arranged in loose chronological order by decade.
Series II: Early History and Projects
This series documents the foundation of the center and renovation and dedication of the Arthur Ross Gallery. This series also documents the early projects undertaken at the Buell Center including Philip Johnson interviews, Oral History project, Paul Nelson exhibition, Documents in American Architecture, and Building and the Book. The records date from 1979 to 1990.
This series documents the Buell Center's lecture series, lunchtime seminars, symposia, and other small programs from 1985 until 2007. Included are files on the Times Square exhibition and all Dissertation Colloquia (1995-2007).
Series IV: Projects and Publications
The series is divided into four subseries: Events & Projects, American Innovation/Summer Prints, Hstory of History, and MAS Publication. Subseries 1: Events & Projects includes records for smaller projects, publications or events arranged in loose chronological order (1984 to 2012). Subseries 2: American Innovation/Summer contains correspondence, print, and illustrations for Vincent Scully's "Architecture of the American Summer" and the center's "American Architecture: Innovation and Tradition" book. Subseries 3: History of History documents the exhibition and book publication planning for "History of History in American Architecture." Subseries 4: Modern Architecture Symposia (MAS) Publication includes original archival documents (circa 1960s), research, mock-ups, and drafts for the Modern Architecture Symposia publication.
Series V: Prizes and Fellowships
This series includes correspondence, forms, press material and administrative records for fellowship applications and other prizes given by the Buell Center.
This 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.
This 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.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
The 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.
Planning 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),
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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