Access
Access Plans
Choose the workspace capacity that matches how much place-based work you need to keep active. Public research stays open. Paid access unlocks the deeper archive and workspace layer.
Independent archive
Field
Up to 100 workspaces
Flexible month-to-month access for smaller active archives.
A specialist self-serve tier for individual researchers, writers, scouts, and preservation users who need a serious working archive without moving into institution-scale volume.
- Keep up to 100 active workspace records in motion.
- Best fit for focused research archives, recurring site files, and smaller long-term watchlists.
- Enough room for sustained individual work without paying for larger archive headroom than you need.
Most capable self-serve
Archive
Up to 500 workspaces
Higher-capacity access for larger working archives.
The recommended self-serve tier for denser multi-site tracking, larger research inventories, and users who want room to keep a much broader place archive active over time.
- Keep up to 500 active workspace records available inside one archive.
- Best fit for heavier repeat-use workflows, broader geographic coverage, and larger long-term research inventories.
- Leaves meaningful headroom before you need a custom enterprise setup.
Custom access
Enterprise
500+ workspaces
For larger archives, institutions, and custom access needs.
Use Enterprise when your archive is larger than the standard self-serve tiers or you need a scoped setup for a newsroom, classroom, preservation group, research team, or advanced automation workflow.
- Built for archives larger than 500 active workspace records.
- A better path for institution-scale volume, shared planning, or unusual access needs.
- Includes custom scoping for advanced automation or agent-led workflows when needed.
Paid Access
All paid workspace plans include
Every paid plan unlocks the deeper archive and workspace layer. The main difference between tiers is how much active place work you need to keep available at once.
- Full-length research narratives, deeper place context, and member-only archive layers.
- Workspace records, saved activity, and dashboard access for ongoing place-based work.
- Map tools, Sanborn Maps, Signals, incentives screening, and linked follow-up tools.
- Private drafts, working submissions, notes, and organization tools that stay tied to the same places.
- AI-assisted workspace tools plus support for your preferred AI workflow when you want to bring your own setup.
FAQ
Common questions about pricing, access, and research workflow
These answers explain how Urban Lithograph works for place-based research, historic preservation research, redevelopment tracking, architecture writing, and other technical location workflows.
The public side of Urban Lithograph stays open for browsing the Research Library, current Watchlist Blog reporting, and the platform overview. That public layer is meant to help historians, preservationists, journalists, planners, and location researchers evaluate the archive before they move into the private workspace.
If you want examples of the public research model, browse Richardson Olmsted Campus, Buffalo or Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
Paid access is built for sustained place-based research: historic preservation work, redevelopment tracking, architectural history, location scouting, campus research, and other workflows where one site turns into an evolving record rather than a single note.
The platform page shows how Urban Lithograph keeps maps, archive layers, incentives, notes, and follow-up attached to the same place record.
Choose Field if you are maintaining a focused working archive for one beat, one city, one client set, or a smaller historic preservation pipeline. Choose Archive if you expect broader geographic coverage, heavier redevelopment monitoring, or a larger portfolio of active buildings, districts, campuses, or industrial sites.
In practice, Field fits a concentrated research desk. Archive fits users who want more headroom for ongoing site documentation and long-horizon tracking.
Choose monthly if you want the least commitment while you test the workflow or scale your archive gradually. Choose yearly if Urban Lithograph is going to be part of your regular research method, especially for long-running preservation, adaptive reuse, or site-selection work.
New requests are reviewed before workspace access is enabled. That approval layer helps protect the archive, keep the private workspace focused, and make sure higher-intent research users are entering the system rather than anonymous signups.
If you need a faster conversation around newsroom, institutional, or consulting use, the contact page is the best place to explain the project.
No. Choosing a plan tells Urban Lithograph which access tier you want, but it does not by itself create an automatic recurring charge. Billing, when required, is handled separately from the initial access request.
Enterprise is the right path when your archive needs more than 500 active workspace records, shared operating conventions, or a custom workflow for a newsroom, preservation organization, university program, planning office, or research team.
It is also the better route if you expect coordinated fieldwork through the Field Network or want a scoped system around advanced automation, custom intake, or collaborative review.
No. Non-admin submissions stay in the workspace unless an administrator explicitly publishes them. That gives researchers room to document a site, review sources, and verify facts before unfinished material appears in the public archive.
That matters for technical place research, building history, and redevelopment reporting, where a record often needs several passes before it is ready for publication.
Yes. Urban Lithograph is designed to sit alongside your existing research stack, including GIS tools, spreadsheets, note systems, and AI workflows. The built-in workspace AI is there to support the record, not force you into a single method.
For a sense of the kind of place record the system is built to support, browse Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge or University Circle, Cleveland.
Enterprise And Custom Access
Talk through larger archives, institutions, or custom setup needs
If you need more than 500 workspaces or want a scoped setup for a newsroom, preservation group, classroom, research team, or advanced automation workflow, the contact page is the best place to start.
Larger archive capacity
Scope a setup when your archive needs to move beyond the self-serve workspace limits.
Custom automation paths
Use direct setup when you need a more tailored automation or institution-specific workflow than the standard self-serve tiers provide.