The Architectural League History Project

We are working to document and analyze the League’s nearly-150 years of history, and we need your help to do it.

The Project

In order to preserve, contextualize, and interrogate its past (for a fuller history, see our history page here), The Architectural League has embarked on a multi-year, three-part history project that will result in the publication of a critical scholarly history of the institution on the occasion of the League’s 150th anniversary in 2031.

At a time when formal architectural education in the United States was still rare, the 1881 establishment of The Architectural League of New York—a voluntary association for “the purposes… of architectural study”—was an acknowledgement on the part of young architects that if they were to grow creatively and intellectually, they would need to build the environment in which to do so themselves.

Over the course of more than 140 years, that spirit of mutual education has remained constant. Indeed, it is what drives the League today in its mission to support critically transformative work in the allied fields that shape the built environment, stimulating the thinking, debate, and action necessary to confront today’s converging crises of racism, inequity, and climate change in service of a more livable and just world. The architects, artists, engineers, planners, landscape architects, designers, and others who currently define the League’s programs are as motivated by a desire to improve themselves and the practice of architecture as the 26 young architects who decided to organize themselves on that winter day in 1881.

Three-Phase Plan for the History Project

The first phase of the project is dedicated to the organization and permanent housing of the League’s post-1974 archive. (Much of the pre-1974 archive is held at the Archives of American Art.) Total holdings consist of roughly 250 boxes of physical documents and several thousand digital files. The League also plans to digitize our large collection of aging audio and video recordings of programs dating back to 1974.

We are simultaneously in the process of collecting and creating a repository of oral histories of individuals who have significantly contributed to the League’s work. Our goal is to create an archive of professionally recorded and edited video interviews, to be housed within the League’s archival collection. Initial interviewees include Emilio Ambasz, Jonathan Barnett, Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Barbara Jakobson, John Lobell, Deborah Nevins, Suzanne Stephens, Robert A.M. Stern, and Susana Torre. The project will conclude with a critical history published on the occasion of the League’s 150th anniversary, in 2031.

History Committee

The project is overseen by a committee of distinguished members of the New York architecture, design, and historic preservation communities: Teri Harris, Rosalie Genevro, Leslie Gill, Frances Halsband, Paul Lewis, Anne Rieselbach, Karen Stein, Suzanne Stephens, Robert A.M. Stern, and Gregory Wessner; and is managed by the League’s Director of Research and Operations, William Kelly, PhD.

Need

We expect expenses for this multi-part, multimedia project to total approximately $300,000.

To Give

To make a gift use our contribution form and select “History Project” in the “Area of Support” field. You may choose to make a one-time or recurring contribution to sustain our efforts to preserve the League’s rich legacy. Contributions will be processed by The Architectural League of New York, and are tax deductible to the full extent of the law (Federal Tax ID: 13-1671027).

If you prefer to donate by check or other means and for additional information about supporting this special project, please contact:

Cameron King
Director of Development and Communications
The Architectural League of New York
king@archleague.org

William Kelly
Director of Research and Operations
The Architectural League of New York
kelly@archleague.org

From the Archive

“Letter from League president Paul S. Byard to Mayor David Dinkins – March 1990”

The Architectural League invested in historic preservation work in the 1970s, and continued that work intermittently in the ensuing years. This was particularly evident during the presidency of Paul Byard, a lawyer and architect who served in this capacity from 1989 to 1994. Over the course of his career, Byard was involved in the preservation of several of New York City’s most important landmarks, such as Carnegie Hall, the Cooper Union Foundation Building, the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division Courthouse on Madison Square, and the old Custom House on Bowling Green. As president of the League, Byard elevated the organization as an advocacy platform regarding the preservation of New York City’s historic building fabric, work that also animated his time as an architect, president of the National Center for Preservation Law, and director of Columbia University’s Historic Preservation program, where he served until his passing in 2008.

Byard penned this letter to Mayor David Dinkins in 1990 to encourage the mayor to appoint a chair to the Planning Commission, which had been without leadership for some time following the resignation of Sylvia Deutsch, the influential chairwoman whose tenure marked the beginning of the redevelopment of Time Square. In this letter, Byard noted his displeasure with the Planning Commission’s orientation over the preceding decade, and encouraged the mayor to chart out a new direction for the commission with this coming appointment.

This document represents the first in a series of archival documents that we will post in the coming months whose digitization was made possible by a 2024 grant from the New York Preservation Archive Project. NYPAP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of archival collections that highlight historic preservation work in New York City. This grant has allowed the League to digitize its extensive archive related to historic preservation work, facilitating much greater access to this valuable collection by researchers and others interested in the history of the League. It also serves as a timely reference to our February 6, 2025 Mentorship Program event, hosted by Paul Byard’s namesake firm Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, and generously sponsored by the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation.

Click here for a PDF of the letter.