Pittsburgh historic districts: when exterior work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, and what it means for your contractor

Is your house in a district?

The City's Historic Designations and Districts page (read 23 October 2026) lists 16 local districts, 67 individual designations and 2 sites (Schenley Park and Westinghouse Park). The districts:

The page says its list is still being updated and that the interactive map linked at the top is the most current check, so look the address up on the map before you get quotes. A National Register listing is not the same thing: these rules come with City designation.

The three review tracks

The City sorts COA applications into three tracks:

The COA Process Guide (version 2026-08-27) gives the over-the-counter example plainly: exterior repair where "color, size, texture, shape, and composition of building materials remain unchanged." Swap slate for asphalt, wood windows for vinyl, or change a paint color, and you are past that line. The guide also asks for paint colors on the material sheets, so color is part of what gets reviewed.

Dates that set your schedule

• HRC meetings: 1:00 pm, the first Wednesday of each month; agendas post 10 days before.
• Community meeting: if the site is in a Registered Community Organization's area, a Development Activities Meeting is required 30 days before the HRC meeting.
• Zoning first: if the project needs the Zoning Board of Adjustment, that decision must be issued before the HRC meeting is scheduled.
• Outcomes: approve (with or without conditions), postpone, or deny. After a denial you can revise, apply for a Certificate of Economic Hardship, or appeal to the Court of Common Pleas.

Fees are on the City's fee schedule and are non-refundable; the guide says more may apply for HRC review. We did not find a dollar figure on the pages above, so ask staff at historicpreservation@pittsburghpa.gov.

What it means for hiring a contractor

1. Put the COA in the contract. Who prepares the application (narrative, photos, drawings, material sheets, site plan for additions) and who attends the HRC meeting. A contractor who has done district work will know the guidelines for your district.
2. Ask for materials by name. The Commission reviews what is on the spec sheet. A quote that says "replacement windows" without the product cannot be reviewed.
3. No permit before the COA. The City will not issue the building or demolition permit until the COA exists, so a crew that starts first is starting without a permit. PLI can cite the work.
4. Check the license. Pittsburgh requires a City general contractor license for building work, with an owner-occupant exemption; see Pittsburgh remodel permit and Pittsburgh contractor license lookup.

Compare Pittsburgh remodel and window contractors by permit record →

What Pittsburgh permits show

Two things matter for a district job. First, 63.0% of remodel firms filed only one permit in three years, so many of the names you will be quoted have little Pittsburgh record to check. Second, remodel permits peak in June (index 127, 100 = an average month). Work back from that: to start in early summer, the COA has to be on a spring HRC agenda, which means a complete application in late winter.

Five-minute check

1. Find the address on the City's historic map.
2. Ask the contractor for two past addresses in a district and look up their permits as in Pittsburgh building permit search.
3. Open the firm's page from our Pittsburgh remodel list and compare its finished share with the 62.3% citywide figure. Typical prices are on the Pittsburgh remodel cost page; counts by year on Pittsburgh permit statistics.

What this does not tell you

Our file does not flag which permits are in historic districts, so the table covers the whole city. COA applications themselves are not in it.