Preservation Chicago’s Mary Ellen DiMatteo Chicago Architecture and History Library, Chicago Tribune Paul Gapp Architecture Collection, and the Chicago Tribune Bound Archive Collection
Preservation Chicago’s Mary Ellen DiMatteo Chicago Architecture and History Library, Chicago Tribune Paul Gapp Architecture Collection, and the Chicago Tribune Bound Archive Collection are now open. These libraries and collections are designed to promote and facilitate research regarding Chicago architecture, history and the built environment.
Intended as a useful resource for professional researchers, authors, historians, students, and enthusiasts who wish to research Chicago history, it also serves an essential resource for Preservation Chicago staff and research consultants to quickly and easily generate content rich research reports for urgently endangered buildings.
This Preservation Chicago’s Chicago Architecture Collection is open to the public and is located at Preservation Chicago’s offices at 205 W. Monroe Street, Suite 400, Chicago IL 60606 in the heart of Chicago’s Loop.
To search the catalog of all 3,000+ titles in Preservation Chicago’s Chicago Architecture Collection, please visit our online digital catalog at Libib.
To search the digital library of all 1,000+ titles in Preservation Chicago’s Chicago Architecture Collection that are fully scanned and digitized, please visit our online digital library at Open Library
To schedule an in-person visit to the Preservation Chicago’s Chicago Architecture Collection, please reach out to us at (312) 443-1000 or info@preservationchicago.org.
All collections are FREE to access and use. We welcome donations to support our efforts to house, catalog and make Preservation Chicago’s Chicago Architecture Collection available to all. Thank you for your support. Link to Donation page.
Preservation Chicago accepts donations of any books, paper, drawings, prints, photographs or documents related to architecture, Chicago history, and Chicago’s built environment. On occasion, we have even accepted decorative arts, furniture, building fragments, or even full building facades. Link to Book Donation page
The Mary Ellen DiMatteo Chicago Architecture and History Library is the office library of Preservation Chicago. In addition to holding over 1,000 titles on art, photography, journalism and politics, it is constantly receiving donations from other libraries when they are deemed relevant to past or ongoing Chicago stories.

The Chicago Tribune Paul Gapp Architecture Collection was recently donated to Preservation Chicago in Summer 2024. Owned and curated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer before his death in 1992, Preservation Chicago is proud to be the new home of over 600 titles specializing in the architectural styles of Chicago and America at large.

Paul Gapp Architecture Collection and Chicago Tribune Chicago Reference Collection. Photo credit: Preservation Chicago
The Chicago Tribune Bound Archive Collection was recently donated to Preservation Chicago in Summer 2024. It is divided between books previously held by the Chicago Tribune Information and Reference Centers, fiction and nonfiction titles by contribution authors, and bound volumes of periodicals and magazines published by the Tribune.
