The collection represents the span of Woods' life and career through papers, photographs, architectural drawings, writings, and published materials. A small group of materials documents his childhood and education through personal papers and photographs. However, the bulk of the collections relates to his professional work and collaborations. Black-and-white snapshots portray Woods with Le Corbusier and Candilis on the worksite of the Marseille Unité (1948-1952). Architectural drawings relating to ATBAT-Afrique projects, most notably the buildings in the Carrières Centrales district of Casablanca (1951- 1953), are complemented by documents relating to housing projects in Iran (1956) and the Caribbean (1956-1960). The award-winning schematic proposal for the Opération Million housing competition (1954) in France is represented, as well as drawings and photographs of suburban projects built on this model throughout the country (Le Blanc-Mesnil, 1956; Bobigny, 1959-1960; Marseille La Viste, 1959).

The firm's first experiment in extending an existing city is represented by drawings, photographs and slides related to Bagnols-sur-Cèze (1956-1960) in the south of France. Drawings and photographs of models for similar but unrealized proposals for Caen, France (1961), and Bilbao, Spain (1962), supplement Woods' manuscripts exploring his concept of the "stem" as a system of urban organization. The "stem" achieved fullest expression in built form in the design of Le Mirail in Toulouse (1960-1964), another urban extension project represented in the collection through drawings and photographs.

German projects represented in the collection include the proposal for the reconstruction of the Römerberg quarter of central Frankfurt (1963) and the mat building for the Berlin Free University (1963-1973), along with an apartment block in the Märkisches Viertel district of Berlin (1967-1972) and a competition entry for a housing development in Karlsruhe (1970). Many of these projects utilized the concept of the "web," an organizational system developed by Woods in several manuscripts held in the collection.

Other materials related to assorted projects in France during this period include drawings from a proposal for a ski resort in the Vallées des Belleville (1962), a collaboration with Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé; drawings and photographs of the Benedictine convent built in St. Julien L'Ars, near Poitiers (1964-1965); portfolios related to a schematic plan for the development of the Parisian suburbs, known as Paris Nord (1965); presentation panels and booklets from a project for regional development in Bresse-Revermont (1967), identified by the acronym CENECA; and drawings and panels from a proposed renovation for the Bonne Nouvelle quarter of Paris (1967).

The collection features materials related to the controversial 14th Triennale di Milano, held in 1968 with the theme of "the greater number," including drawings related to Woods' installation and objects and panels from the exhibition. Drafts of exhibit texts supplement manuscripts for lectures, articles and his book, The Man in the Street (1975), providing a portrait of Woods as a teacher, thinker and writer. Correspondence, clippings and audio recordings document his relationships with institutions ranging from CIAM and Team X to Harvard and Yale Universities to the Fluxus movement in contemporary art. Books from his personal library provide a glimpse of Woods' personal and professional interests, including the nascent environmentalist movement and the precarious state of the contemporary city.

Woods' final years in New York City were devoted to preparing a study for the planned Lower Manhattan Expressway (1967-1970), proposing the transformation of SoHo into a light manufacturing district (1970), and designing low-cost housing, including a development at Frederick Douglass Circle (1970). These final projects appear in diagrams, drawings and draft texts spread throughout the collection.