The Buell Center was established through a beneficent gift from Columbia architecture school alumnus Temple Hoyne Buell (1895-1990). Buell was a Denver-based architect known for such works as the Paramount Theater, the Colorado School of Mines, Lincoln Park homes (Denver’s first low-income housing development), and the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

The initial endowment was augmented by gifts from the Kaplan Foundation and Phyllis Lambert. Over the years the Buell Center’s programs have been funded by the Buell Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York Council for the Humanities, the New York Foundation for Architecture, the Graham Foundation, the Design Arts Commission, the Arthur Ross Foundation, the Shaw-Walker Foundation, the Gund Foundation, the German-American Exchange Service, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and other public and private sources.