Preservation Group Wants To Save Old Froggy's Tavern Building

PITTSBURGH, PA - A preservationist organization is objecting to plans to demolish the building that once housed the old Froggy's tavern and several other structures to build a new office tower on the site.

Froggy's tops the list of this year's Young Preservationist Association of Pittsburgh's list of top 10 restoration opportunities in the city. The building that once housed it is jeopardy by owner Michael Troiani's proposed Boulevard and Market Tower bounded by the Boulevard of the Allies, First Avenue and Market Street.

"Anchoring its corner on Market Street and First Avenue since 1960 in Pittsburgh's historic Firstside District, the buildings at 100-102 Market Street took its place in local lore from its time as a popular nightspot frequented by celebrities and athletes such as Jack Nicholson and Mario Lemieux until closing in 1983," the preservationist group wrote about Froggy's on its website.

"Its listing on the National Register of Historic Places does not protect it from being demolished, however. Young Preservationist Association joins our friends at the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in strongly supporting a meaningful reuse of the structures to maintain the historic integrity of the block, a remarkable collection of early Pittsburgh commercial buildings."

In documents filed with the city planning commission in July, Troiani contended that the vacant, narrow and separated buildings of varying heights are inefficient and obsolete requiring redundant systems and ineffective ratios of costs to usable square footage.

"Reusing out-of-date and physically disconnected buildings is not the highest and best use for a larger consolidated sitein this prominent location," the documents stated.

The Froggy's space currently is vacant. The office tower that Troiani plans would have lower height and massing along Market and First and higher height along the Boulevard of the
Allies. Bricks from the demolished Froggy's and the other buildings would be integrated into the facade of the lower-height portion of the tower.