Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library
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| Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library | |
|---|---|
| Name | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library |
| Country | United States |
| Type | Research library |
| Established | 1890 |
| Location | Columbia University, New York City |
| Collection size | >1 million volumes |
| Director | (see Administration and Affiliations) |
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library is the architecture and fine arts research library of Columbia University located in New York City. It serves scholars, professionals, and the public with extensive holdings in architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, art history, and preservation. The library supports teaching and research across Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, School of the Arts, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and collaborates with cultural institutions across Manhattan, New York City, and international partners.
History
Founded in 1890 through the bequest of financier and bibliophile Henry Ogden Avery, the library developed alongside Columbia University's expansion under presidents such as Nicholas Murray Butler and deans including Charles Follen McKim. Early collections were shaped by collectors and architects like Charles McKim, Cass Gilbert, and Richard Morris Hunt. During the 20th century the library acquired major archives from figures associated with Beaux-Arts architecture, Modern architecture, and movements involving Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe. The library's growth reflected intellectual currents tied to institutions such as the American Institute of Architects, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the American Academy in Rome. Key benefactors included families and donors linked to firms such as McKim, Mead & White, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and individuals like Henry Hobson Richardson. During periods marked by events including World War I, World War II, and postwar urban renewal, the library expanded its holdings through purchases, gifts, and transfers from studios associated with architects like Philip Johnson, Piet Mondrian (as influence), and preservationists involved in The Preservation League of New York State.
Collections and Special Holdings
The library's collection exceeds one million volumes and includes significant archives, drawings, photographs, and ephemera related to architects, firms, and movements. Major personal archives and firm records comprise materials from Frank Lloyd Wright, Rafael Viñoly, Robert A. M. Stern, Adolf Loos, Eero Saarinen, Raymond Hood, Ernest Flagg, John Russell Pope, and Percy Robinson, as well as firms like McKim, Mead & White, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The rare book collection contains incunabula and architectural treatises by Andrea Palladio, Vitruvius, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (as author), Sebastiano Serlio, and Leon Battista Alberti. Drawings and print materials document movements including Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, International Style, Brutalism, and Postmodernism. Photographic holdings feature work by photographers associated with Berenice Abbott, Julius Shulman, Ezra Stoller, and archives related to urban plans by Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs (as critic), and the Regional Plan Association. Special collections include manuscripts, map collections tied to New Amsterdam and Manhattan, and material related to exhibitions at Carnegie Hall and institutions like the Frick Collection.
Services and Facilities
The library provides reference services, digital imaging, interlibrary loan, and special collections reading rooms supporting scholars from institutions such as Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and international centers including The Courtauld Institute of Art and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Conservation labs work with conservators influenced by practices promoted at organizations like the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. Digital initiatives partner with digital humanities programs at Columbia University Digital Scholarship Archive and centers modeled on Getty Research Institute standards. Users access catalogs integrated with systems used by the Research Libraries Group and OCLC, and staff collaborate with curators from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and curatorial teams at MoMA for exhibition loans.
Research and Public Programs
The library hosts lectures, symposia, fellowships, and exhibitions in collaboration with Columbia departments and external entities such as the American Institute of Architects, Architectural League of New York, Historic Districts Council, Municipal Art Society, and the New-York Historical Society. Fellowships attract scholars associated with programs at Getty Center, Bunting Institute, and international residencies linked to Villa Medici and the American Academy in Rome. Public programming has featured topics involving figures like Daniel Burnham, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Alvar Aalto, and contemporary debates attended by critics from Architectural Record and contributors to The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Architecture and Building
Housed within Columbia University's campus facilities near Morningside Heights, the library occupies spaces designed and adapted over time by architects and firms such as McKim, Mead & White, I.M. Pei, and later preservation architects influenced by Stanley Tigerman and Richard Meier ideas. The building's stacks, reading rooms, and climate-controlled vaults reflect conservation standards promoted by the National Archives and Records Administration and the American Institute for Conservation. The physical setting connects to neighboring structures like Butler Library, Low Memorial Library, and facilities used by Columbia Law School and the School of International and Public Affairs.
Administration and Affiliations
Administratively, the library reports through Columbia University's Butler Library and university library system, cooperating with university units including Columbia Libraries Special Collections and departments such as the Department of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Directors and curators have professional ties with organizations like the Society of Architectural Historians, Association of Research Libraries, and grant-making bodies including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The library's partnerships span cultural and academic partners including The Cooper Union, Columbia University Libraries, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Museum, and international archives such as RIBA and the German National Library.