Architecture: Investigating a Site

This page provides guidance on investigating a building site or a neighborhood for an architectural or urban design project. It focuses on Pittsburgh sites and resources, but similar resources may exist for sites in other municipalities, states, and countries.

• Climate Data
• Community Planning and Development
• Data
• Maps
• Property Ownership
• Zoning

Climate Data

• Northeast Regional Climate Center
  With links to national data.

• Pennsylvania State Climatologist
  Climate data for Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania locations.
   
• Sun Path Chart Program (University of Oregon)
  Produce sun angle charts for any U.S. location. Read the About Sun Charts link for background information. For Pittsburgh, enter a zip code, or latitude (40 degrees) and longitude (-80 degrees), and solar time zone (-5h).
   
• Naval Oceanography Portal: Data Services
  A wide variety of sun and moon data.
   
• Wind Rose Data (Natural Resources Conservation Center)
  Month-by-month wind data for numerous U.S. locations including Pittsburgh.

Community Planning and Development

• City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Projects
  Review this Web site for sites and neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh. The Department produces many reports that may never appear in library collections.

Data

• Pennsylvania State Data Center
   
• U.S. Census Bureau - Data
   
• Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC)
  The Data Center maintains open data portal for the City of Pittsburgh anhd for  Allegheny County and hosts datasets from other public sector agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations.

History

• Archives Service Center (University of Pittsburgh)
   
• Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives
   
• Historic Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh and Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania)
  Digital collection of books, maps, photographs, etc.
   
• Pennsylvania Department Collections, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
  The best place to go for local history research,  A short walk from Carnegie  Mellon.
   
• Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center (Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania)

Maps

• Allegheny County GIS Viewer
   
• City of Pittsburgh Geodetic and Topographic Survey Maps, 1923-1961
   
• City of Pittsburgh - Geographical Information Systems
   
• Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access
   
• Pittsburgh Historic Maps
  Pittsburgh plat maps and other maps and aerial photographs overlaid on each other.
   
• Plat maps / Fire insurance maps
  These maps were published in book format since the 1870's, most by G. M. Hopkins and the Sanborn Map Company. They usually show the names of property owners, street addresses, and dimensions for individual properties; and show footprints, building materials, and number of stories for buildings. They were republished periodically; thus a comparison of volumes for the same area shows development over time.
  • Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970

    Produced for over a century, more than 660,000 Sanborn maps chart the growth and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities.

  • Historic Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh and Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania)
    Site includes online access to many G. M. Hopkins maps for Pittsburgh.

  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (Hunt Library)
    Sanborn maps on microfilm.
     
  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (Penn State University)
    Digital Sanborn maps for Pennsylvania, mostly prior to 1922.
     
• TopoView
  Access to historical USGS topographical maps, 1884-2006.

Property Ownership

Search for or recent current owners of properties in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County using this web site:

• Allegheny County Real Estate Web Site

Zoning