Architecture and Building

RESOURCES BY TOPIC

Topics covered by this guide include architecture, building and construction, design, housing, planning, preservation, facility management, energy and the environment, and landscape architecture. Types of listings range from discussion groups to electronic publications to databases -- and of course a wide variety of websites. This is a selective guide. Links to more comprehensive link collections are included. For some topics just one or two sites with good links to the net resources in that topic are listed. Although the emphasis is on quality sites, sometimes sites that are currently not well-developed but show promise of being so are included.

This guide, started in 1993, is posted to the UNLV Libraries Architecture Studies Library page [/arch/rsrce/webresources/index.php]. Additions and corrections, as well as suggestions for categories, can be sent to Jeanne Brown (jeanne.brown@unlv.edu), head of the UNLV Architecture Studies Library. Permission is granted to use this material for non-commercial purposes, provided the author (Jeanne Brown) is credited.
This Architecture Internet Database is very extensive.
Scroll down, use ->EDIT ->FIND , or the hotkeys Control F to search within these pages.

Architecture Internet Resources -> Reference Tools

Resources for: Reference Tools

Academic Programs in Historic Preservation and Allied Fields [http://www.uvm.edu/histpres/ncpe/chart.html]
Last accessed 1/03.

Accredited Programs in Landscape Architecture [http://www.asla.org/Schools.aspx]
Last accessed 9/08. Updated 10/08.

ACM SIGGRAPH Computing Bibliography [http://www.siggraph.org/publications/bibliography/]
Over 21,000 article references in the fields of computer graphics,
computer animation, geometric modeling and computer vision.

Last accessed 1/03.

ADA Accessibility Guidelines (Americans with Disabilities Act) [http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm]
Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. Full text of the Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities, as amended. 2/99

ADAM Project: Search Engine [http://adam.ac.uk/]
Last accessed 1/03.

AIA Firms [http://architectfinder.aia.org/]
Search by zip code, firm, country city, etc to list member firms and organizations in that area. 06/08

Alexandria Digital Library [http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/index.html]
University of California, Santa Barbara hosted "distributed digital library for geographically-referenced information." Substantial set of links to other "spatial data on the web." Includes the ADL Feature Type Thesaurus: A set of terms for categories of geographic places ( http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/gazetteer/FeatureTypes/ver070302/index.htm)4/99, 6/2008

American Planning Association - Planning Advisory Service Reports Subject Index [http://myapa.planning.org/pas/subject.html]
Or search by chronological order: http://myapa.planning.org/pas/chron.html Last accessed 1/03.

ARCAT The Architect's Catalog [http://www.ARCAT.com]
Directory information, links, product and spec info. 7/98

archINFORM: Architectural Buildings/Projects Database [http://www.archINFORM.net/start.htm]
Database of "over 5000 built and unrealized projects from various architects and planners. The architecture of the 20th century is the main theme of this database." Lists by person and town; searchable. Useful reference tool for dates and locations.

Architects in Canada Directory [http://www.canadianarchitecture.com/]
Organized by name, firm, city.

Architects USA [http://architectsusa.com/home/]
Listings of over 30,000 architecture firms, from Yellow Pages and from submissions by architects. The geographic location of a firm must be known to find a specific firm. Can search firms categorized by size. A list of licensing boards is part of the site. 7/98

Architecture and Building: Net Resources [http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/rsrce/webrsrce/contents.html]
Last accessed 1/03.

Architecture Glossary [http://architecture.about.com/arts/architecture/library/bl-glossary.htm]
Just a little over 50 words with definitions and illustrations. 7/00

archiV - die architektendatenbank [http://www.workshop-archiv.de]
"archiV is a databank for the German speaking area. it contains addresses, lists of projects and supplies biographical and project information." Can search by architect and project type. 7/98, 6/08.

Art & Architecture Thesaurus Browser [http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/index.html]
Hierarchical vocabulary of about 120,000 terms. 7/98

Artlex: Dictionary of Visual Art [http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Intro.html]
2800 terms. Longer articles on architecture, landscape, etc. Many definitions link to specific examples [e.g. see "arch"]. Also provides a blog called Artlex Daily. 12/98, 6/08.

Arts & Crafts Movement Resource Directory [http://anc.gray-cells.com/i_links.html]
Directory is divided in many categories, including architecture and antiques. 3/09

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture [http://www.acsa-arch.org]
ACSA is composed of US and Canadian schools with professional architecture programs. Links to member school web sites.

Biographies of American Architects, 1897-1947 [http://www.sah.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=BiographiesArchitects&category=Resources]
Last accessed 6/08.

Blue Book of Building and Construction [http://thebluebook.com]
Building and construction. Search by region. Narrow search within a region by using keyword or company name. 8/02

BuildingOnline: The Search Engine [http://www.buildingonline.com]
Searches engine which "searches over 72,000 building related web sites." Search results for individual queries give site URLs plus number of lines containing the word searched. Building related databases include architects and house plans, associations and education, builders, contractors and consultants, product manufacturers, software, media. E-newsletter available via RSS feed. Last accessed 1/03, 6/08.

Cities and Buildings Database [http://content.lib.washington.edu/cities/]
Images of buildings in more than 30 countries. Access is geographically arranged. The aim is to create an electronic image archive on "Cities and Architecture." 7/98, 6/08.

Columbia's Avery Library Catalog Clio [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/clio/]
Last accessed 1/03, 6/08.

Design Linc: Disability Products and Design Resource Center [http://www.designlinc.com/]
"The Design Linc is an on-line Interior Design resource and information service, specifically geared to locate high quality products and services available for the Physically Challenged (All disabilities) individuals."

DesignIntelligence’s America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools. [http://www.di.net/archschools/schools.html]
Print copies of previous years are available in Arch Ref. Last accessed 11/06.

Dictionary of Islamic Architecture [http://archnet.org/library/dictionary/]
Definitions with links to illustrations. 7/02

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture [http://decorativearts.library.wisc.edu/]
"A database of the Chipstone and Longridge image collections of furniture, ceramics and prints. Objects date mostly from the 18th century. The ceramics pieces are now extensively documented with research by Leslie Grigsby of Winterthur. The images are available for
academic research and teaching." 11/08

Dissertations Underway on Architectural History [http://faculty.washington.edu/jn/diss.htm]
Last accessed 1/03.

Emporis [http://www.emporis.com/en/]
11/06

Engineering News-Record Firm Finder, including 500 Top Firms [http://www.enr.com/people/default.asp]
Last accessed 1/03.

Environmental Impact Statement Collection [http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/searcheis.html]
Database of citations to the Environmental Impact Statements held by Northwestern University's Transportation Library -- said to be nearly all the EIS's issued by federal agencies since 1969. The statements are available for loan for a fee. 12/98

Ergo Architecture Gallery of Architectural Quotations [http://www.ergoarchitecture.com/quotations/default.htm]
Not extensive, but interesting. 12/98

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names [http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/index.html]
Hierarchical structure of nearly 900,000 places. "The TGN provides vernacular and English names of places, variant names in other languages, and whenever possible, historical names. The record for a place may also contain geographical coordinates, dates, and notes." 7/98

Glossary of Castle Terms [http://www.castlesontheweb.com/glossary.html]
Last accessed 1/03.

Great Buildings Collection Online [http://www.artifice.com/gbc/buildings.html]
Information and images of 750 buildings. Information includes architect, location, date, building type, and print resources on the building. 7/98

High-Rise Buildings Database [http://www.ctbuh.org/HighRiseInfo/TallestDatabase/tabid/123/Default.aspx]
Compiled by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. "Data on thousands of tall buildings: the latest facts and statistics, visual images and video, and listings of professional firms linked to specific buildings and specialty categories." Differential access for Council members/non-members [one search produced 3 hits for non-members, 64 hits for members]. 10/01

Historic American Building Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/]
"The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies. As of March 1998, America's built environment has been recorded through surveys containing more than 363,000 measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 35,000 historic structures and sites dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century." 3/99

International Archive of Women in Architecture [http://spec.lib.vt.edu/IAWA/guide.html]
Last accessed 1/03.

International Archive of Women in Architecture: Imagebase [http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/browse.php?folio_ID=/iawa]
Just one of the categories of Virginia Tech's Imagebase, this collection of images from the International Archive of Women in Architecture has about 2000 images, sorted by woman or category. The women in this imagebase are architects, designers, and landscape architects. A sample google search showed these images do not come up in the google results. 4/05

Library of Congress [http://lcweb.loc.gov]
Last accessed 1/03.

National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB) [http://www.naab.org/]
Mission, history, accredited programs, terms and rules, conditions for accreditation, and affiliated links. 3/99

National Register of Historic Places [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/]
Last accessed 1/03.

National Technical Information Service [http://www.ntis.gov]
Search "over 3 million technical, scientific, and business information products published by U.S. government agencies adn international sources." Ordering information is included, but not abstracts. 10/00

NetSERF's Hypertext Medieval Glossary [http://www.netserf.org/Glossary/]
1400 words, A-Z. 12/98

Oikos Green Products Gallery [http://www.oikos.com/products/]
Last accessed 1/03.

Periodicals for Architecture Schools [http://gv8vb9rn4q.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=GV8VB9RN4Q&S=SC&C=01]
Last accessed 1/03.

Pritzker Architecture Prize [http://www.pritzkerprize.com]
History of the award, list of winners, images of projects or recent winners.

Reed Design Registry [http://www.firstsourceonl.com/profile/index.asp]
Search engine for locating architectural design firms in the United States. Entries provide name, address, phone, specialization.

RIBA Library Catalog [http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/RIBALibrary/Catalogue.aspx]
Catalog/index including books, articles, slides, drawings, photographs, manuscripts. 10/99, last accessed 7/08.

SPIRO, Architecture Image Library, Query Form [http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/]
"SPIRO is the visual online public access catalog to the 35mm slide collection of the Architecture Visual Resources Library (AVRL) at the University of California at Berkeley. The collection numbers over 250,000 slides and 20,000 photographs. SPIRO content is the responsibility of AVRL, while programming and system support is provided by UC Berkeley's Museum Informatics Project (MIP). SPIRO was named in honor of the late architectural historian Professor Emeritus Spiro Kostof, and stands for "Slide and Photograph Image Retrieval Online. SPIRO is freely available on the World Wide Web." 4/02, updated 10/08

structurae: International Database and Gallery of Structures [http://www.structurae.de/en/]
"structurae is an International Database and Gallery of Structures. It is provided as a free service to engineers, as well as teachers and students of structural engineering. This site contains contemporary and historical information on works of structural engineering and their designers, and firms that constructed them. The intention is to provide a broad overview of structures and as much technical information as reasonable." Also points to relevant print and web materials. Searchable; browsable by designer, geographic area, type of structure, firm, and project name. 5/99, last accessed 7/08

StructureHub [http://structurehub.com]
This site is a directory of architecture, interior design, engineering, urban planning, landscape architecture, and consulting firms. The user can search for firms by location and narrow results by design styles and firm size. Many entries allow the user to browse through pictures of previous projects as well. 09/09

Sweet's Group (now McGraw Hill Construction Sweets Network) [http://www.sweets.com/]
Comprehensive resource/databas to product information and manufacturers. Last updated 7/08.

Techstreet [http://www.techstreet.com/]
Standards catalogs from a wide variety of organizations (AAMA to UL). Engineering standards, specifications, technical books and resources for engineers and scientists 12/02

THAIS - 40 Centuries of Architecture [http://www.thais.it/architettura/]
Images of Egyptian, Greek, Islamic and Romanesque architecture, indexed by location, subject, and period. (Language: Italian/English) Link established 12/98, last accessed 7/08.

ThomasNet [http://www.thomasnet.com]
"Powered by ThomasRegister and ThomasRegional". Last accessed 7/05.

Timeline of World Art - Metropolitan Museum of Art [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's timeline allows searching by period and by special topics. Architecture is highlighted for a few periods, such as Renaissance architecture.5/04

University of California Catalog Melvyl [http://melvyl.cdlib.org/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b&local_base=cdl90]
Last accessed 1/03.

Wikipedia on Architecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture]
5/05, last accessed 7/08