Architecture

Architects & Buildings: The Architects Collaborative

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TAC Archives on Microfilm

The Architects Collaborative (TAC) was founded in 1945 by a group of graduates of Harvard's Graduate School of Design and soon joined by Bauhaus veteran Walter Gropius. TAC was well-known and highly respected for its broad range of projects, which included many public and private school buildings throughout New England, as well as a large number of hospital buildings. Many other successful firms were formed by graduates of the firm.

In 1995, owing to financial difficulties resulting from political problems in the Middle East, TAC was forced out of business. This sudden closure prompted several Boston-area librarians to act quickly in order to rescue TAC's records. The microfilmed archives of TAC's records are now owned by Rotch Library.

Description: The microfilm is arranged in four sequences: Working Drawings, Job Files, Specifications, and Legal Contracts. Material dates from 1946 to the early eighties but is not comprehensive either within or between the four sequences.

Availability: The collection is serviced by Rotch Library staff but is housed in the RetroSpective Collections of the MIT Libraries. Retrieval requires advance notification and can take up to 24 hours, with no retrieval on weekends or holidays. Microfilm box numbers are linked to a list of TAC jobs organized by broad categories. For retrieval, a building's original name is needed.

Copies: The Libraries have no facility for making full-sized copies of the drawings. Patrons may make standard copies from a microfilm reader/printer, on site.

For further information, contact Ann Whiteside, Architecture Librarian, at (617) 258-5594 (awhites (at) mit.edu) or the Rotch Information Desk at (617) 258-5599.

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This page was last updated on 09/25/07