Use this guide to perform background research to refine a research topic, confirm terminology, and get a general understanding before finding books and articles to support a research project.
Getting started with academic research | Overview of urban affairs and planning | Recommended databases
Updated continuously, Emporis provides data on architecture, construction, and real estate developments from all over the world. Search by company (consultancies, contractors, design firms, engineering firms, suppliers), building type, style, construction time frame (complete, under construction, approved, proposed, demolished, visionary, on hold), exact location and address, total height, structural height, number of floors and cubical space, date of construction project, structural system, materials, etc. Contains roughly 300,000 photos of buildings.
ULI Development Case Studies provides full-text case studies describing the development process of building projects (in HTML). Studies include general descriptions, contact information for the development team, the building site's background and history, special features of the project, what did and did not work on the project, key facts and figures, and photos of the site or floor plans. 1981-present. Limited to simultaneous user.
Large-scale maps of towns and cities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., useful to urban specialists, social historians, architects, geographers, genealogists, local historians, planners, and environmentalists. Data contained includes the outline of each building; size, shape, and construction materials; functions of structures; locations of windows and doors; street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Displays images in the browser using a plugin for zooming and scrolling.