If it hadn???t been for a 21-year-old film buff, the building at 1727 Boulevard of the Allies, Uptown, might have remained a wallflower before slipping away unnoticed.

Drew Levinson entered a video contest last winter sponsored by the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh for students 25 and younger. His video about the Paramount Pictures Film Exchange Building won the contest and brought the building to the attention of preservationists.

He beamed when the city's Historic Review Commission recommended historic designation for the building last week.

"It's exciting," he said. "I'm amazed at how fast I've gotten into historic preservation."

Mr. Levinson was taking classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers when he made his video about the building. He used 1955 footage of the 50th anniversary parade through Downtown that celebrated the birth of the Nickelodeon in Pittsburgh.

"So many people don't know Pittsburgh's film history," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "This building is one of the last representatives of that era."

Paramount built what it called the Paramount Pictures Distribution Corp. in 1926, the year it released "Beau Geste," starring Ronald Colman. It sits in a row of buildings on the Boulevard of the Allies once owned by film studios, including Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox.

Local theater owners could go from one to the other screening films before booking them. They would have seen the Marx Brothers' "Animal Crackers" and "Duck Soup" in the '30s; "The Lost Weekend" in 1945; "Come Back Little Sheba," "Stalag 17," "The Ten Commandments," "The Rainmaker" and "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" in the 1950s; "The Odd Couple" in 1968; "Harold and Maude" in 1971; and "Lady Sings the Blues" and "The Godfather" in 1972.

It is not known exactly when Paramount closed its distribution company, known as a film exchange, in Pittsburgh. In the video, former Pittsburgh Press film critic Ed Blank said Pittsburgh's population loss hurt theater revenue, making it "impractical" for studios to maintain operations. Two former film exchanges are now occupied by Harry Davis & Co. Real Estate and the Duquesne University Tamburitzans.

Architecturally, the Paramount building is framed in terra cotta, with decorative scrollwork and egg-and-dart molding. Like all relics in disrepair, this one is one man's trash and another's treasure.

Stanford G. Davis, chairman and CEO of Harry Davis & Co. Real Estate, calls the building "a disaster." To Mr. Levinson, "it is marvelous."

Mr. Levinson is a production assistant on the Denzel Washington film "Unstoppable," which is being filmed in Pittsburgh, and intends to finish college at some point, he said. He grew up in Squirrel Hill and passed the building often. "I noticed the majestic mountain [Paramount] emblem on that building when I was 15, and I knew there was a story there."

The building was last used by the county as a rodent-control warehouse. It was in the portfolio the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center bought from Mercy Hospital in 2006.

Attorney David Montgomery, representing UPMC, argued against historic designation, saying the status would make the building less appealing to a prospective buyer. "We argued vehemently that it didn't merit historical status," he said.

Historic status cancels plans to raze a building. Mr. Levinson said he is convinced razing was UPMC's intention.

Dan Holland, CEO and founder of the Young Preservationists Association, said his group will help UPMC market the building. He has been in discussions with William Gordon of Gordon Atlantic in New York City.

"We are interested in the building," Mr. Gordon said. He has sent Mr. Holland a plan to renovate it as a clinic but was waiting to find out whether it would get historic status. Historic designation "is always encouraging in terms of tax credits," he said.

Mr. Davis said that he would "be all for" a productive use for the building, "but I don't view it as having any historic value unless someone spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on it."

Jeanne McNutt of Uptown Partners, a neighborhood organization, said the group wants new development and "reuse of old, viable buildings that will bring vitality to the community. The Paramount building is a vestige of a cultural legacy that's unique to Uptown."