The collections are international in scope and concerned with architecture in its broadest sense. The library to date includes some 180,000 volumes on the theory, practice, and history of architecture.
Titles range from fifteenth-century imprints to current publications.
The collection of prints and drawings now comprises some 65,000 works from the late fifteenth century to the present. The collection focuses on coherent bodies of material that illustrate the architect's conceptual process and the evolution of projects from initial sketch through presentation and contract drawings. The CCA's collection of architectural photographs is of unequalled richness and closely parallels the history of photography. The collection, which now consists of some 50,000 images, is concerned with the art of architectural photography from its beginning to the present day. The Archives collects, conserves, and makes available bodies of archives from individuals and groups who have worked in a significant way, on the local or international scale, in architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture.