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Blueprints

This collection consists of nearly 200 sets of blueprints and reproduced drawings documenting buildings, parks, bridges, tunnels, piers, aerial views, and maps. Most of this material represents the built environment of the 20th century, and many of the projects are located in New York City. The work of Alvar Aalto, John Hejduk, Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, are well represented in the collection, which is an important curricular resource for design studio analysis projects as well as building technology and structures courses. This collection is currently available only to Cooper Union students and faculty.

The collection includes the following works, among others: Grand Central Station (New York, NY); Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut (Ronchamp, France); Phillips Exeter Academy Library (Exeter, New Hampshire); the Lincoln Memorial (Washington D.C.); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY); Jacob Riis Park (Queens, NY); and the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, CA).

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.