This collection primarily contains 177 groups of English, Continental and American drafting sets and individual instruments dating from circa 1700 to 2004. These instruments were used to create technical drawings, typically by architects, draftsmen, engineers, surveyors, and students. Complementing the instruments are a small group of miscellaneous items, including medals, a model, a necktie, and a charm bracelet, and a large group of published materials, including trade catalogs and other technical, biographical, historical, and scholarly writings about drafting and scientific instruments and related subjects.

Angelo Monaco (CC '87) studied architecture as an undergraduate at Columbia University. Included in this small collection is a 1-page reminiscence on Douglas Darden who was a studio critic while Monaco was an architecture student (2016); a pencil, color pencil, and ink sketch by Darden titled "The Three Temptations" drawn on the verso of a floor plan of Avery Hall's Wood Auditorium (1985); and a signed 10-page lecture "The Diagram as a Space of Difference" by Peter Eisenman (2005).

The collection consists of research papers complied by Annice Alt in preparation for the book Boak & Paris / Boak & Raad: New York Architects (2014), and includes newspaper clippings, notes, contemporary photographs of buildings, real estate advertisements, and building information reports created by Alt. The collection also inclues 10 original ink on linen drawings for the Boak & Raad limited profit housing project, Leland House (Bronx, NY); one perspective rendering by Rowe Langston for the David Rose 1945 commissioned apartment, The Thornley, at 215 E. 79th Street (New York, NY); and reproduction of two drawings for the Boak & Paris apartment house 331-345 West 57th Street (New York, NY).

Collection contains large-scale black and white photographic prints taken by G.E. Kidder Smith of historic and contemporary buildings in 32 states.

The Arthur Cort Holden Collection consists chiefly of glass plate negatives that primarily deal with the explication of New York City housing and real estate. Other subjects include diagrammatic maps of New York City, exterior and interior views of unidentified domestic architecture, and a limited amount of projects by Holden himself. The collection also contains drawings related to the economic and housing surveys and studies concerning New York City completed during the 1930s. Both Cornell University and Princeton University hold other extensive collections related to Holden.

The collection documents the life and activities of architect Arthur T. Sutcliffe. The collection is made up of four series: Personal Papers, Project Records, George L. Sutcliffe Papers, and Family Papers.

More than 120 architects from the United States and abroad contributed original drawings to this collection. Most are hand-drawn; some are printed through traditional etching or lithography techniques; a few others are computer-generated prints. Images are primarily related to the architects' projects, although some drawings are travel sketches of other structures. Drawings in this archive were exhibited at the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and the Arthur Ross Gallery at Columbia University, Apr. 3-May 4, 1991. At least one drawing from each contributor was published in the accompanying exhibition catalog, CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1991).

The materials that comprise the Vertical File have been collected and added to from a variety of sources by former Avery Librarians. The vertical file contains clippings, pamphlets, reprints, and other miscellaneous materials relating to persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects relating to architecture, housing, and city planning. The purpose of the vertical file was to arrange and store small items, memorabilia, and ephemeral material on a variety of topics to facilitate access by researchers. For the most part, the vertical file contains printed items only. Manuscript material and other unique items were, generally, not placed in the vertical file. In some cases, manuscript material has been removed from the Vertical File and placed in its corresponding collection.