Paramount Film Exchange (Pittsburgh)

Paramount Film Exchange (Pittsburgh) is a building at 1727 Boulevard of the Allies in the Uptown or Bluff (Pittsburgh) neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designed by R.E. Hall Co. Architects of New York City in 1926. Currently, the structure is owned by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). "Film exchanges" were, in the words of film historial Max Alvarez, "agencies engaging in the practice of renting or trading motion pictures" and in the early part of the 20th century, they served as “full-service stores for theater owner/managers.” Motion-picture studios owned exchanges and used them to screen their films for potential exhibitors in a local market. Once videocassettes came into use in the 1970s, it was no longer necessary to screen a film in a screening room, and film exchanges fell out of use. The Paramount Film Exchange, which belonged to Paramount Pictures, was one of several film exchange buildings in the area. The Duquesne University Tamburitzans occupy the former location of the Warner Bros. exchange at 1801 Boulevard of the Allies, and the auction and real-estate firm Harry Davis & Co. is located next door, at 1725 Boulevard of the Allies, in the building that once housed 20th Century Fox's exchange.

The Paramount Film Exchange has become the subject of a contentious battle over historic preservation in Pittsburgh, which is redeveloping many of the older neighborhoods in its urban core. Initial attention to the Paramount Film Exchange came in 2008, when 21-year-old Drew Levinson entered and won a video contest sponsored by the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh (YPA) with his short film on the Paramount Film Exchange. Levinson's video rallied support behind saving the Film Exchange from sale or demolition by UPMC. In 2009, YPA proposed the Paramount Film Exchange for official historical designation by the City of Pittsburgh. The Historic Review Commission of the City of Pittsburgh grants landmark designation based on “the importance of a particular place to Pittsburgh’s heritage.” The YPA attributed the site's historical significance to its status as the last remnant of of Pittsburgh's "film row." UPMC and the Exchange's other large institutional neighbor, Duquesne University, both oppose landmarking the building. In August 2009 Pittsburgh's Historic Review Commission approved the nomination, allowing the proposal to move to the Planning Commission. However, on Sept. 15, 2009, the Planning Commission rejected the proposal to designate the building a historic structure. The proposal moved to City Council. A Nov. 17, 2009 hearing of Pittsburgh's City Council to rule on landmark status for the building had to be postponed as a quorum was not present.

External links

• Paramount Pictures Film Exchange (YouTube video)
• Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh
• Photo of the front door of the Paramount Film Exchange