Research Guides: Finding Images: Architecture & Building

Architecture & Building Images: Top Sites

The following resources are databases which provide digital images of the built environment. Some of these are part of the University of Oregon Libraries' collections and some are available on the free web.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Includes over 1,000,000 digital images of architecture, landscape architecture, and decorative arts among the 2,000,000 images of cultural objects. Software functions include zoom and special downloading features. Includes 60,000 contemporary architecture images from Archivision. Users can upload images and create custom folders.
Art and Architecture Images Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes thousands of images of high quality images of architecture and outdoor sculpture acquired from Archivision, http://www.archivision.com/, a company created by UO graduate Scott Gilchrist.

Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
Provides approximately 25,000 images with accompanying documentation about the architectural heritage of the Pacific Northwest with special emphasis on Oregon’s historic sites and built environment. A significant number of images come from slides donated to the UO Libraries. As a result of continuing collaboration with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, many items represent works listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Digital Sanborn maps 1867-1970 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Large-scale, detailed, black & white maps of 177 Oregon towns and cities, as well as municipalities in California, Washington, and Idaho
Originally created for fire insurance purposes, Sanborn maps have become a valuable tool for studying the history, growth, and development of cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Users can pan and zoom as well as download PDF versions of each sheet. The MAP Library also has paper versions of many of these maps.

Lowenstam Collection of Ancient Western Art and Archaeology
Includes images of Classical structures and landscapes.

Websites for Architecture Images

archINFORM
This database for international architecture, originally emerging from records of interesting building projects from architecture students, has meanwhile become the largest online-database about worldwide architects and buildings from past to present. archINFORM includes information over more than 81000 built and unrealized projects from various architects and planners.
Archnet
Archnet is an open access, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world.
Chartres: Cathedral of Notre Dame (University of Pittsburgh)
This collection is hosted by the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of Professor Emerita M. Alison Stones, Ph.D.
NYC Municipal Archives Online Gallery
Selected from the world-class historical collections of the Archives, most of these unique photographs, maps, documents, motion picture and audio recordings are being made accessible for the first time.
NYPL Digital Collections
This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Wikimedia Commons
Large collection of public domain and Creative Commons images, sounds, maps, and other media.
ArtServe
Art & architecture mainly from the Mediterranean Basin, Japan, India & Cambodia. Hosted by the Australian National University/
SkyscraperPage
Covers over 112,000 structures with over 60,000 drawings in nearly 7,000 cities.
Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome
Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour presents an innovative geo-database (geographic database) and website that references the work of two 18th century masters of Roman topography: Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756), who published the first accurate map of Rome (La Pianta Grande di Roma, 1748); and his contemporary Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782), whose comprehensive documentation of the city and its monuments, especially in Delle Magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna, published from 1747-1761, establishes him as one of Rome’s great topographers. Created by UO's Jim Tice and Erik Steiner.
WorldImages
The internationally recognized WorldImages database provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project.