The Architectural Records Roundtable
of the Society of American Archivists
Find Built Environment Records
There are many repositories for records documenting the built environment. The list below includes major archives across the United States that focus primarily on the collection and preservation of architectural, engineering, landscape architecture, and construction records. If you would like to have your repository added to this list, please contact an ARR co-chair.
Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas at Austin
Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Archives
Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Avery Library, Drawings and Archives Collection, Columbia University
California Architectural Archives, California Polytechnic State University
Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives
Center for Architecture, Design, and Engineering, Library of Congress
Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site and the Olmsted Research Guide Online
Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota
Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University
Western Historical Manuscripts Collection-Kansas City -- Built Environment Collection
There are a few sites that provide compiled lists of repositories or archives that have substantial architectural records collections.
Via repositories:
UNESCO provides an international scope.
Carnegie Mellon University provides a good listing for North America, primarily U.S.
Via archival reference sevices:
ArchiveGrid is a subscription database that allows patrons to search library, museum, and archival collections.
Archive Finder is a subscription directory that describes over 220,000 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Subscribers can read descriptions of materials held by archives to determine whether further research is necessary.