Archive & Notable Collection

The Center for American Architecture and Design (CAAD), as part of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, encourages knowledge of the built environment by exploring distinct themes in architecture through exhibitions, symposia and publications. The Center for American Architecture and Design records document the creation and operation of CAAD, including the Center’s events and publications. Record types include, office files, correspondence pertaining to publications and events, drafts of Center journal articles, photographs, and slides. Further accruals are expected.

The Texas Architecture archive is a collection of documentary research materials on historic Texas buildings produced by students and initially assembled in 1960 by Professor Drury Blakeley Alexander at The University of Texas School of Architecture. While material in the Texas Architecture archive focuses on buildings across Texas, the strength of the collection is in the Central Texas region. Record types in this collection include measured drawings, reports, photographs, oral history interviews, and audiovisual materials.

The School of Architecture Student Work collection includes a selection of coursework produced by University of Texas Architecture students in design studios from 1915 to the present. The projects include drawings of buildings, objects and human figures.

The University of Texas School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection (VRC) records documents the work of the Visual Resources Collection, an analog and digital image collection operated by the School of Architecture. The primary function of the VRC was to provide a sustainable and searchable collection of visual images to support classroom teaching with an emphasis on the School of Architecture's curriculum.

The Texas Architecture Survey (TAS) was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (Fort Worth, Texas) and the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. Conducted from 1963-1966, the survey produced a partial visual inventory of Texas homes and public buildings built in the nineteenth century.

Drury Blakeley Alexander (1924-2011) was an architectural educator who served as professor at the University of Texas School of Architecture and continued to serve the city through the Historic Landmarks Commission. Alexander was a champion of the preservation of the University of Texas' historic buildings and a special friend to the Architecture and Planning Library.

The firm library of San Antonio architectural firm, Ayres and Ayres contains architectural publications, including building monographs, typological and technical treatises, professional journals, competition manuals, and materials catalogs. San Antonio architects Atlee B. Ayres (1873-1969) and Robert Ayres (1898-1977) collected these books for their firm's library. Atlee B. Ayres opened his San Antonio firm in 1894. His son Robert joined the practice and the name of the firm was changed to Ayres and Ayres in 1925.

The Karl Kamrath Library is a collection of architectural books assembled by prominent Houston architect Karl Kamrath (1911-1988). After graduating from the University of Texas, Kamrath worked in Chicago for Pereira and Pereira, the Interior Studios of Marshall Field and Company, and the Architectural Decorating Company before opening an architectural firm with Fred MacKie in 1937. MacKie and Kamrath helped introduce modernist architectural design to the Houston area.

The Martin S. Kermacy Collection is a collection of architectural books assembled by Martin S. Kermacy (1915-2007), a distinguished professor in the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture from 1947 to 1983. The collection was accessioned in 1998 along with the architectural drawings (prints), photographs, slides, maps, and art currently housed in the Alexander Architectural Archives.

Acquired in 2000, the Paul Philippe Cret Library is a collection of architectural books and photographs of considerable historic value to the University of Texas at Austin. The Cret library includes over 440 volumes published between 1560 and the 1930s as well as 43 albums, portfolios and boxed sets of archival photographs, complementing the Paul Phillippe Cret collection in the Alexander Architectural Archives.