Canadian Centre for Architecture
Canadian Centre for Architecture – Library
The Library of the CCA is an international research collection devoted to the history of architecture and the built environment. It comprises nearly 215,000 volumes with emphasis on rare books and special collections relating to the history of architectural theory, practice, and publishing from the fifteenth century to the present. It holds, in addition, over 5,000 serial titles (ca. 760 current subscriptions) and a variety of special materials.
Of special interest is their collection on Canadian Architecture and Urbanism. Containing over 12,000 titles, more than half from the past four decades, it is intended to be comprehensive. The focus is on Canadian architecture, with emphasis on historic buildings and landmarks, and on Canadian architects and architectural firms. It includes general histories of localities, businesses and institutions. It has a special strength in souvenir publications of towns and villages, chiefly in Québec and Ontario, as well as view books and guidebooks. It has especially good coverage (over 1,700 titles) on the history of Montréal and its architecture, with emphasis on city planning and urban renewal.
This collection is supplemented by two noteworthy special collections: the Cormier Library, with approximately 2,500 monographic titles and 100 linear feet of periodicals comprising the major portion of the professional and private libraries of Montréal architect and engineer Ernest Cormier (1885-1980); and a collection of Canadian Fire Insurance Maps, a near-complete set dating from the 1880s to the 1970s, representing close to 400 cities, towns and villages throughout the country.
Formats of material include: monographs, periodicals, exhibition catalogues, theses, trade catalogues, almanacs, directories, atlases, audio-visual materials, etc.
Clients can consult documents in the library’s Reading Room, open by appointment from Wednesday to Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
architecture, built environment, Urban planning
Clients can search the holdings of the collection, and request items to consult, through the library catalog: http://www.cca.qc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=cca&lang=eng#focus
There are three different ways to search the catalog:
Keyword - Allows you to find a term (or part of a term) anywhere in the complete bibliographic record;
Boolean - Allows you combine keyword searches in various indexes (includes title, subject, author, subject, language, country of publication and more) using Boolean logic (and, or, not);
Browse - This search displays an alphabetical list of authors, titles or subjects.
You can limit your results by language and media (format) and sort by author, date, title, media type.
Under Research Resources from the library catalog main menu are a number of additional tools to search for material:
Vertical Files - relating to architecture and the built environment, these files include ephemeral material such as exhibition announcements and invitations, as well as photocopies of newspaper clippings relating to architecture, principally from the Montreal newspapers and the New York Times. These are divided into 4 main areas: Montreal, Quebec, Canada and General. Under each of these is a listing of the files available
Charrette Archive - the websites of CCA / Inter-university Charrettes from 1996 to the present, presented full text in HTML format.
Bibliographies - citations to materials on the following topics:
- Selected bibliography of information sources for non-current architectural periodicals
- Selected bibliography of articles on the CCA building and gardens
- Selected bibliography on multiple dwellings in Montreal
- Selected bibliography on the Port of Montreal
- Writings by and about Peter D. Eisenman
Architecture Links - an organized selection of useful links relating to architecture.
Museum Links - an organized selection of useful links relating to museums and museology.
With the exception of the Charrette Archive noted above, all other documents are bibliographic citations of the materials held here.
Contact information
1920 rue Baile
Montréal, Quebec H3H 2S6
1920 rue Baile
Montréal, Quebec H3H 2S6
