Originally founded in 1894 as the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, Van Alen Institute (VAI) has accumulated a significant archive of historical design material documenting the development and expansion of late 19th and early 20th century American architectural education. This material was identified in 2007 and remains virtually unknown to design researchers and educators. VAI's archival material dates from 1893 - 1994 and is comprised of 258 linear feet of institutional records, 39 linear feet of photographic materials and 4,000 + original architectural drawings. Records include the Institute's founding documents, correspondence, trustee and design jury meeting minutes, financial documents, design competition programs, publications and scrapbooks. Photographic material includes over 200 albumen prints (1904-1908) and approximately 12,000 gelatin silver prints and negatives of student drawings (1904-1994). The archive's original drawings date from 1936 and are complimented by 67 remarkable drawings from the organization's early history that were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980. Based on a preliminary box survey (see links below), VAI has identified four record groups corresponding to the Institute's historical departments - Architecture, Sculpture, Mural Painting and Interior Decoration - and three groups corresponding to the Institute's activities - Administrative Records, Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts and the Beaux-Arts Ball.
In 2007, with generous support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Institute began organizing, arranging and digitizing materials from its Architecture collection. Public access to digitized architecture competition drawings, programs and jury reports will be available in 2010 via CollectiveAccess, an open-source, web-based, collections management platform created by museum software developer Whirl-i-Gig in collaboration with a community of partner institutions. As the first open-source application of its kind, CollectiveAccess marks a significant advance for the museum and collections community, and Van Alen Institute is pleased to be among the first architecture organizations to use and support this software.
Preliminary Records Surveys:
Survey of boxes 001-093
Content survey for boxes 001-026
For archive inquiries please contact Chris Dierks at cdierks@vanalen.org or 212.924.7000x14
Van Alen Institute’s Design Archive Project is a multi-year initiative to provide public access to the Institute’s collections of historical design materials. Dating from the Institute’s founding in 1894 as the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, these materials document the Institute’s legacy as a liaison bridging architectural education and practice through open-call design competitions and fellowships, and the significant influence of these programs on the development of early 20th century American architectural education.
Open-call design competitions were originally adopted by the Society of Beaux Arts Architects as tools for educational reform. Distributed to architecture schools and ateliers nationwide, the Society's competitions curricula imported the French Beaux-Arts method of design, and adapted it for American students. Competitions were structured as a series of tiered exercises and problems culminating in the Paris Prize in Architecture, launched in 1904 as the first national architecture prize for U.S. students. This approach proved influential - by 1912, the Society's curriculum had been adopted by architecture schools across the country and by an independent network of over 100 design ateliers, where thousands of students and young professionals received instruction from well-established American architects. Renamed as the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in 1916, and in 1956 as the National Institute for Architectural Education (NIAE), the Institute's evolving design programs played a formative role in establishing competitions as a central component of architectural education. In 1996, the Institute was named in honor of William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building, recipient of the Institute's 1908 Paris Prize, and the founding donor for the Institute's endowment.
Work on the Design Archive began in 2007 and has taken two forms: a digitization initiative to provide web-based access to the archive's architectural drawings and competitions documents, and an arrangement and indexing initiative to organize the Institute's physical collection for public access. As a first step, the Institute is arranging and digitizing competition entries, programs and jury reports relating to the Paris Prize (1904-1994). This information will provide a core representative sample of the collection's holdings for the archive's initial public launch, currently scheduled for early 2010.
