Specialty Drawings
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window
AVERY INDEX TO ARCHITECTURAL PERIODICALS
Describes articles related to architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning. Links via the Get It! button.
Use the Advanced Search screen to quickly narrow your search to journal articles containing architectural drawings.
- type the name of your exemplar in the search box
- navigate to the Document feature box and select your desired specialty drawings.
- click on Search
The search screen will look like this:
Video Tutorial (2 mins.) – Finding Specialty Drawings in Avery
- LionSearch This link opens in a new window
Use LionSearch to do a Google-style search for architectural drawings in the Library’s catalog (The CAT), e-journals, and e-books. Some of your search results will be accessible online, while others will be in available in paper format books and journals.
- type the name of your exemplar in the search box
- if the name consists of multiple words, enclose the name in quotation marks (“ “)
- type the word plans after the name of your exemplar
- click the magnifying glass icon to start the search
The search screen will look like this:
The search results screen will look like this:
To look at all search results within a box (e.g. BOOKS AND MEDIA), click on the “See all results” link underneath each box.
The full search results for the BOOKS AND MEDIA box look like this:
If needed, use the limits in the left-hand column to refine your search results. Limit DISCIPLINE to “architecture”, and limit SUBJECT TERMS to “designs and plans”.
- DETAIL Inspiration This link opens in a new window
Detail: Inspiration is an excellent source for descriptive information and graphics for recently designed buildings – especially when structural details are needed. This database contains the majority of the feature articles from DETAIL magazine as well as DETAIL: Green, DETAIL: Inside, and DETAIL: Structure.
Although the contents are usually contributed by a building’s designers (much like most of the recent web magazines), DETAIL imposes standards which include uniform and informative graphics – browsing these shows much about a building’s components and how they are put together. Articles back to 1987 are included. DETAIL: Inspiration is not covered in LionSearch, so searching this database, or the paper copies, is the only route to accessing the contents.
- Building Types Online This link opens in a new window
The Building Types Online database contains approximately 850 case studies of recent building projects organized by building types (that is to say, the functional purpose of the building.) Typical results include a project description, drawings, and photographs. Essays discussing major types are also available. Especially strong in housing and its variations but also including libraries, museums, schools and industrial, office and sacred buildings. The database includes 2000 photographs and 5000 architectural drawings (vector-based, drawn to scale, and available for download). While the photographs are not high resolution, they do help to provide context to the drawings.
NOTE: Use the search box on the LEFT side of the screen. Do NOT use the search box in the top right corner of the screen.
An easy way to browse a selection of recently designed buildings and public spaces is to use the free e-journal ArchDaily. It uses press releases from design firms and posts the graphics provided by the firms. The information is recent, but also very brief.
Notice especially the browsable categories ArchDaily provides under the Projects tab. Try a few of these.
Once you have chosen projects of interest, try LionSearch or the Avery Index to find texts that are based on more than a press release.
Key Buildings from Prehistory to the Present by ISBN: 9781856698375Publication Date: 2012This e-book features around 150 of the most important buildings in the history of world architecture--from the pyramids and the Parthenon to some of the most significant works by recent architects. The quality and number of the line drawings, together with the authoritative text by a renowned architectural historian, allow all the buildings to be understood in detail.
Plans, Sections, and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century by ISBN: 9781856693820Publication Date: 2004Featuring more than one hundred of the most significant and influential buildings of the twentieth century. Each building is accompanied by numerous scale plans showing typical floors, elevations, sections, and site plans (where appropriate). Cross-references to other buildings in the book highlight the various connections between these key structures.
Key Contemporary Buildings: Plans, Sections, and Elevations by ISBN: 9781856695015Publication Date: 2008Featuring 95 of the most significant buildings of the early twenty-first century, this book includes works by such eminent architects as Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, OMA and Frank Gehry, as well as newer names, such as Jamie Fobert and Sou Fujimoto. The buildings are organized by planning strategy and are divided into eight chapters, each with an informative introduction that ties the buildings back to iconic examples from the twentieth century. For each of the buildings included there are numerous scale plans showing a combination of floor plans, elevations and sections as appropriate.
