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Alan Burnham (1913–1984) was an American architect and architectural historian who served as the Executive Director of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1965 to 1973 as well as the Commission's Director of Research. This collection consists mainly of reference materials related to architectural history and New York City architectural history, as well as professional papers and papers relating to Richard Morris Hunt and the history of New York City apartment buildings.

An American architect and urban planner, Shadrach Woods was a student of Le Corbusier and worked extensively throughout North Africa, France, Germany and New York City on projects ranging from low-cost housing developments to university campuses. Also highly regarded as a critic and theorist, Woods taught at Harvard and Yale and lectured and published widely. 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.

Oscar Newman (1935-2004) was an architect, planner, and theorist. Newman was best known for his theories on crime prevention and residential design, which he introduced in his book Defensible Space. This collection contains the majority of Newman's projects and writings spanning from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. It consists of textual materials in the form of correspondence, notes, written and typed drafts, and publications; accompanied by prints, negatives, slides, drawings, and audio/visual material.

Felix Candela (1910-1997) was a Spanish-born architect and engineer who gained a worldwide reputation for designing complex concrete structures, especially thin concrete shell structures, many times involving double curvature (hyperbolic paraboloid). This collection contains materials related to Candela's personal, professional, and academic lives, overarching all periods of his career. Project records document the full range of his work of both his Mexican and American periods. The collection contains extensive correspondence with personal friends, clients, and professional and academic colleagues; a large number of reference files relating to architecture, design, urbanism, technology, sociology, anthropology, and current events, compiled throughout Candela's professional life; architectural drawings and photographs from his work; and writings by and about Candela.

The Robert K. Merton papers document the noted sociologist's career as a student, professor, writer, and researcher. Merton's numerous and varied academic and professional affiliations, activities, and accomplishments are reflected in correspondence, memoranda, drafts, clippings, and notes.

Robin Middleton is an architectural historian whose work focuses largely on French and English architecture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection documents Middleton's research and writing process starting with his early dissertation work on Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc at Cambridge University continuing into the 1990s after Middleton joined the faculty at Columbia University.

Alfred Neumann (1900-1968) was a Czech architect with an international career. Most of his major projects were executed in Israel; his earlier work consisted mainly of private residences for Czech clients, as well as commercial and residential architecture undertaken with various firms or government bodies in Paris, Berlin, Algiers, and South Africa. Neumann devoted a substantial portion of his career to teaching and to research into architectural morphology, theories of proportion, polyhedral structures, and architectural space as pattern. He taught at both the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa, and the Université Laval in Quebec. He participated in CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne), Groupe Espace, and other architectural groups throughout his career. This collection consists mainly of project drawings and photographs, personal and professional correspondence, Neumann's writings and research, papers related to Neumann's membership in CIAM, and publications related to his projects. The bulk of the material dates from Neumann's later career and concerns projects and research undertaken while Neumann was in Israel.

Percival Goodman (1904-1989) was an Americam architect, teacher, urban planner, artist and writer. In a career that spanned more than sixty years, Goodman achieved renown as one of the most prolific synagogue architects in the United States and was instrumental in the development of a critical discourse around the building of modern religious architecture. The collection consists of project records, drawings, models, photographs, slides, professional correspondence and contracts, articles and unpublished manuscripts, teaching and lecture notes and personal and professional memorabilia, such as architectural licenses and certificates, as well as articles and clippings about his work.