For an overview of an architectural style or information about a notable architect, books and reference resources are a great place to start.
Gale Virtual Reference Library and Oxford Reference have specialized encyclopedic content and topic overviews.
EBOOK Central has an extensive selection of ebooks.
The Elements of Style
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Architecture: from Commission to Construction
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Building Character
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To learn about the evolution of a building, the best resources are primary source documents and visual artifacts like maps, photographs, or blueprints. You can also conduct research about an architectural styles or the architect who designed a building or explore a buildings' context by researching:
Environment, land use, and ecology
This 1995 New York Times Article by Christopher Gray, provides some pointers for researching the history of a NYC building. Pay attention to context and time periods before you begin your research.
Jstor: Digital images of works of art and design, including painting, photography, sculpture and architecture. Images can be downloaded (with some restrictions), printed or saved.
Avery Digital Projects: Includes rare books, architectural drawings and photography, and ephemeral materials from Columbia's Avery Library.
Brooklyn Historical Society Online Image Gallery: A selection of historic images from Brooklyn.
Cities and Buildings Database: Image Collections from the University of Washington.
Laguardia and Wagner Archives: Digital collections include images of NYCHA properties and historic images of queens.
Museum of the City of New York: Digital image collections of New York City. More than 170,000 images available digitally.
Municipal Archives: Selected digitized NYC buildings from tax photograph collections (1930s & 1980s).
NYPL Digital Collections: Streetscapes and Townscapes of Metropolitan New York 1860-1942.
NYPL Fire Insurance, Topographic, and Property Maps / Atlases: Range of locations & time periods. For more recent maps, visit the NYPL map division in person.
City Tech Library has a collection of maps created by the Sanborn Map Company (2000) that show property outlines.
Paper copies of the following are on Reserve in the library -- ask at the Circulation Desk:
Manhattan (between 34-46th Streets and 1st and 2nd Avenues): maps 24, 26, 35-38
Brooklyn: maps 5, 6, 18, 24-25, 28-30, 35
Electronic copies of the following are available in the Multimedia Resource Center:
DWG maps: Brooklyn maps 24, 25, 35
TIF maps: Brooklyn maps 22, 23, 27, 31
