Digital Images of Architecture

This guide lists basic resources for finding digital images of architecture. For more assistance, contact Ed Teague, subject specialist for architectural areas or other visual arts librarians in the Architecture and Allied Arts Library.

Search Engines

• Google Image Search. The most comprehensive image search on the web. In addition to sites, buildings, and other names, searches for the websites of architectural firms can yield information about contemporary works and images.

Guides

• Digital Librarian: Architecture & Historic Preservation.  Provides extensive list of links to image sites

University of Oregon access

• ARTstor. Restricted access to UO community. Hosts 700,000 images including ca. 200,000 zoomable images of architecture and landscape design.  Over 900 quick-time panoramas.
•  Art & Architecture Images. Restricted access to UO community. Local database that supports UO instruction.  Over 30,000 architectural images including plans.
• Building Oregon.  Locally-created database that focuses on Oregon & Pacific Northwest built environment.  Over 16,000 images and documents.

Image Surveys on the Web

• Top:
  • Structurae; International Database and Gallery of Structures. Extensive database with 120,000 images of ca. 45,000 structures. Includes engineering works in addition to buildings. Construction processes and materials are featured. Bibliographies provided.
  • archInform (International Architecture Database). Provides information on 12,000+ architectural works.
  • Great Buildings Collection Online. Gateway to thousands of buildings with images, models, commentaries, bibliographies, web links, and more.
  • Emporis. Emphasis on high-rise structures in 8,000 sites worldwide in this web resource oriented toward the real estate market.
• Others:
  • AICT-- Art Images for College Teaching. Provides royalty-free images for educational community. Works are indexed according to inclusion in several popular art history survey texts.
  • Art History Resources on the Web. Extensive lists of websites, most with images, organized by region, period, style.
  • Dictionary of Art. Online version of the multi-volume Grove Dictionary of Art provides access to hundreds of images of architectural works.
  • Digital Imaging Project. Original photos of architectue and sculpture freely available for non-commercial educational uses.
  • ArtServe . Thousands of images of art/architecture mainly from Mediterranean area.
  • SPIRO (Architecture Visual Resources Library, Univ. of California-Berkeley). Over 35,000 records with linked thumbnail images. Since the database cites sources for images, SPIRO can be a good visual index for good quality images found in books and periodicals.
  • World Heritage List (UNESCO). Text and images about nearly 700 works on the World Heritage list.
  • Cities and Buildings Collection (Univ. of Washington). More than 7,500 recent images of architecture and city views from around the world.

Return to top

Topical Areas

• Individual Architects: Yahoo:Master Artists and Architects
• Asia
  • Asian Historical Architecture. Provides access to over 9,000 images with descriptive detail. Uses map interfact to help locate sites.  Excellent source for plan and site details.
  • Digital South Asia Library (American Institute of Indian Studies)
• Australia
  • ImageServe (10,000 images of European/Australian art/architecture)
  • Sydney Harbour and Opera House
• China
  • Asian Historical Architecture
• Canada
  • Canadian Architecture Collection (McGill Univ.)
  • Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive
• Cambodia
  • Asian Historical Architecture
• Caribbean
  • Periferia: Architecture and Urban Design in the Caribbean
• Egypt
  • Temple Palace of Ramses III
  • Egyptian ARchitecture -- THAIS (Italian Architecural Image Archive).
  • Monuments of Egypt (Ancient, Islamic, Christian, Jewish)
• Europe
  • Digital Archive of European Architecture
  • ImageServe(10,000 images of European/Australian art/architecture)
• France
  • Base Mérimée (Historic buildings in France)
  • Chartres (Univ. of Pittsburgh). Over 3,000 high-quality images
  • Medieval Architecture in France --images of French architecture from the Middle Ages. Many building images are accompanied by maps of locations, floor plans, photos, and brief descriptions. Also features an illustrated Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture.
• Greece
  • Ancient City of Athens (Indiana University)
  • Architecture of the Ancient Aegean (University of Colorado)
  • Greek Art -- THAIS (Italian Architecural Image Archive).
• India
  • Digital South Asia Library (American Inst. of Indian Studies). Over 20,000 images.
• Italy
  • Architecture of the Ancient Aegean (University of Colorado)
  • Palladio Museum Images (Harvard University)
  • Renaissance and Baroque Architecture (Univ. of Virginia)
  • Roman Art and Architecture (University of Colorado)
  • THAIS (Italian Architecural Image Archive)
  • Trajan'sColumn (McMaster Univ.)
• Japan
  • Asian Historical Architecture
  • Tokyo: Recent Architecture
• Korea
  • Asian Historical Architecture
• Malaysia
  • Asian Historical Architecture
• Middle& Near East
  • Islamic Architecture -- THAIS (Italian Architecural Image Archive).
• Myanmar
  • Asian Historical Architecture
  • Temples of Bagan
• Thailand
  • Asian Historical Architecture
• United Kingdom
  • WWW Guide to Edinburgh
• United States
  • American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920. (Library of Congress) - 2,800 images including plans; about 25% on F.L. Olmsted's work.
  • Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America. (Library of Cognress) 29,000 images digitized from architectural photographers' collection covering 1930s-1950s.
  • Arcosanti (Paolo Soleri)
  • Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present.
    Online searchable catalog of HABS/HAER documentation of approximately 25% of the morethan 35,000 historic structures and sites surveyed. Digital images existfor many records.
  • Chicago Imagebase. (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago). Includes buildings, plans, aerial views, maps
  • Colorado Architecture
  • Detroit Publishing Co. Photographs of American Places 1890-1920
  • Digital Archive of American Architecture. (Univ. of British Columbia). ca. 1,500 images of US architecture
  • Indiana Historic Architecture
  • Kidder-Smith Images of American Architecture. (MIT)
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Sites
  • NYPL Digital Gallery -- Explore Cities and Buildings Collections.  Offers thousands of digital images of drawings, maps, manuscripts, photographs, posters, prints, rare books, and more. Encompassing the subject strengths of the vast collections of the Research Libraries, these materials represent the applied sciences, fine and decorative arts, history, performing arts, and social sciences.
  • Philadelphia Architects & Buildings.  Over 216,850 projects and buildings, 20,000+ architects, engineers and contractors, and over 49,920 images. Features structures primarily in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties, all the Philadelphia Historical Commission list of significant buildings, and the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission's inventory of historic structures
• Vietnam
  • Asian Historical Architecture