The CAED’s extensive slide collection of 120,000 slides and growing digital image collection some 24,000 images, are uniquely housed in the Hay Media Resource Center as are the Plan Collection and the Materials Collection.

The Hay MRC’s Digital Image Database (MRC-DID) is a joint and on-going project created and augmented with the cooperation of faculty, students and the MRC staff. The CAED faculty, students, and alumni donate their travel slides to the MRC-DID collection. The MRC staff supplement these donated travel images with scanned images from books in the public domain.

Major subject areas of the MRC-DID include:

Having acces to images in MRC-DID makes it possible for students and faculty to visually analyze formal elements in architectural works and site designs.

Students and faculty can also scan slides from the MRC slide collection or their own slide collections using the MRC’s Nikon LS 5000 slide scanner.

Image Database Access Guidelines

The Hay Media Resource Center has amassed a collection of 25,000 architecture related images. We are providing access to these images via a software called Microsoft Expression Media Reader. The MRC Image Database is located on the “caed1” server.

Download & Install Expression Reader

Before you can access the MRC Image files you will have to download the Expression Media Reader and install it on your computer. The following links take you to the download pages for the Windows and Mac versions respectively.
Windows Reader
Mac Reader

Server Connection from an Apple Computer

Mac OS X 10.4 and higher users need to follow these directions to connect to the MRC Image database. You will need Mac OS 10.4 or higher to open the databases.

  1. Click on the "Go" menu and go down to and click on "Connect to Server..."
  2. Type caed1.calpoly.edu on the "Server Address"
  3. Use the same User Name and Password that you use to access: http://my.calpoly.edu/ site and click "Connect"
  4. Select CAED-File-Server and click "OK"

Server Connection from a Windows Computer

You will need WindowsXP or higher to open the databases.

  1. In Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer on the Address line type (including the back slashes):
    //caed1.calpoly.edu
  2. The User Name is "caedshared" and Password is "caedshared"
  3. Select CAED-File-Server and click "OK"

Accessing Image Database Files

In the “caed1 server” window, click on the folder titled ARCH

Select the MRC-Resources folder.

In the MRC-Resources folder, select ”MRC Image Database”, which contains the following folders and databases:

Viewing & Downloading Images

To view or download images you need to use the Expression Media Reader software.

  1. Open the Expression Media Reader software on the server (caed1) and click any of the following 3 databases:
    • Architects_A_Z.ivc
    • 217_Arch_History_Ancient-to1100.ivc;
    • 218_Arch_History_1100-1800.ivc.
  2. OR Drag both an image folder (1_Architects_MRCBackup_A-Z) and its corresponding database (Architects_A_Z.ivc ) to your desktop. It may take 15-30 minutes to download the folder of 6,000 images and its database.
  3. To view a thumbnail image in full size, double click on the thumbnail; to download a full size image to your desktop click and drag the THUMBNAIL view to your desktop.

Follow the Media Reader User Guide instructions to search the database.