Skip to main content

Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal

plans (orthographic projections)

refers to drawings, sketches, prints, computer graphics, or works in other media depicting a building or any object viewed from above, geometrically represented as projected on a horizontal plane. The term is particularly used to refer to drawings or other images showing the relative positions of all the parts of a building, or of the parts of any one floor, roof, or other part of a building in horizontal section; it is thus distinguished from vertical sections or elevations. The term can also be used collectively to refer to sets of drawings or other images for a project, including plans per se as well as other drawings, such as sections. For general reference to depictions or photographs showing structures or sites seen from directly above, use "plan views." For representations of portions of the Earth's surface use "maps" or "plans (maps)"