Architecture & Design
This guide is intended to help you get started with your architecture & design research.
Online Resources - Architecture Images
ARTstor (UofC only)
- An art, architecture, design, and culture image database consisting of ~1 million high resolution images
- Includes QTVR (Quick Time Virtual Reality) 3-dimensional views of architectural sites and sculptures
- Also hosts the Archivision Library acquired by the UofC Library - of 47,000 high-resolution architecture digital images to date
- For an overview of architecture and design collections, see:
- YouTube ARTstor tutorials:
- Introducing the new ARTstor
- Register for an ARTstor Account
- Making an Image Group
- Download Images to PowerPoint
Pidgeon Digital (UofC only)
- An audiovisual collection (audio, video, and images) of illustrated talks by architects and designers.
Images - Online Resources (UofC only)
The Bridgeman Art Library Archive
The Bridgeman History of Science
National Gallery Collection
Architecture Images (Web)
- Architecture and interior design for 20th century America
- Photographs by Samuel Gottscho & William Schleisner 1935-1955
- Basel Mission Picture Archive (includes architecture)
- Photographs taken at the intersection of European, African, and Asian cultures from 1850 to 1950
- Canadian Architectural Archives
- Cities/Buildings Database
- Image Resources from Society of Architectural Historians website
- Norbert Schoenauer Digital Case Studies Collection
- Norbert Schoenauer, 1923-2001, was a Canadian architect, educator and planner on faculty at the McGill School of Architecture from 1960 to 2001
- RIBApix
- Images from the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects, the world’s most extensive visual archive devoted to architecture.
- Low resolution copies of the images may be downloaded free of charge for personal use and teaching purposes.
- Higher resolution files suitable for publication or prints for private use may be ordered through this site.
- Visual collections: images of art, history and culture: Architecture
- Provides access to digital image collections from Museums, Universities and private collections throughout the world - by Cartography Associates (David Rumsey)
Canadian Architectural Archives: Digital Images (Open access)
Provides access to digital images of selected photographs, slides, models and drawings in selected collections in the Canadian Architectural Archives. Note that most of the collections below contain many more photographs, slides, models and drawings than those available online - and there are many more collections in the CAA.
- Calgary Modern (800 images)
- Photographs of modern architecture in Calgary of a variety of types of buildings: commercial, public, and private residences
- Photographed in 2004 for Calgary Civic Trust
- Donovan & Eunice Williams Canadian Churches (500 images)
- Photographs of churches and places of worship in Canada
- Photographed 1990-1995 by Donovan Williams with assistance of his wife Eunice Joan.
- Flanders Architectural Photography (1500 images)
- Photographs of architecture of Ron Thom, 1923-1986
- Photographed ~1980 by John Flanders
- Gordon Aktins (800 images)
- Photographs of models and buildings of Calgary architect Gordon Atkins, 1937-
- Marine Building (>100 images)
- Photographs of architectural drawings of Marine Building, Vancouver, ~1929
- By firm McCarter Nairne & Partners, 1906-1953: John Young McCarter (1886-1981) and George Colvil Nairne (1884-1953)
- Panda Associates (10,000 images)
- Documents Canadian architectural, cultural and social heritage
- Captures the beginning and growth of modern architecture in Canada, and provides a visual record of a more traditional architectural heritage.
- Photographs of all types of buildings from commercial to public, primarily in Toronto, but not only
- Photographs by firm Panda Photography: Paul Rockett, Lockwood Hait and Hugh Robertson
- Photographed 1950-1960
- Thomas H. Mawson (100 images)
- Photographs of Calgary by Mawson, and
- Drawings of proposed plans for the City of Calgary by Mawson
- Photographs and drawings created 1912-1914