Preservation Pittsburgh

Preservation Pittsburgh works with various communities to help them celebrate and protect the historic, architectural, and cultural assets that matter to them. We believe that everyone deserves a voice in the development and preservation of our city and surrounding communities. Preservation Pittsburgh was formed in 1991 as a grass-roots response to the demolition of the Syria Mosque, a beloved concert hall in Oakland that remains a surface parking lot. Preservation Pittsburgh offers a variety of programs and services to individuals, organizations, and government agencies with regard to Pittsburgh's history and architecture. Services and assistance includes site visits, consultations, research and writing applications for local historic landmark designations as well as for the National Register of Historic Places. Designations at the local and national level not only include buildings and structures, but also our city parks. Programs include educational events such as walking tours, public meetings, workshops, and lectures. We also act as a consulting party when invited by government agencies and developers with regard to development and construction projects. Much of what Preservation Pittsburgh does is not duplicated elsewhere and thus there is a real need for our community-based assistance, advocacy, and programming. Through our work, we advocate for neighborhood history and character; adaptive reuse to minimize the environmental impact of demolition and new construction; and community-sensitive development for economic revitalization. Due to development pressures in a robust real estate market and needs unique to older buildings, we receive many requests for technical assistance from community and government organizations. Our local historic designation of the Oliver Bath House leveraged government and economic development grants that prevented the building’s closure, keeping it as a public amenity. We also are working to highlight the varied stories of our past including those of underserved communities. Through this work, we hope to close some gaps in recognizing women, people of color, ethnic groups, and sites related to builders and makers. We are an entirely volunteer-run historic preservation non-profit. Given this, our overhead is very low so that most of the funds that we raise goes directly into our projects.