Doggie’s Pub in State College is getting bigger.
The 108 S. Pugh St. bar will be extended from its space in the Foster Building into the ground floor of the neighboring Homerella Building at the corner of South Pugh Street and East Calder Way, according to a land development plan presented to the State College Design Review Board on Tuesday afternoon.
The existing covered breezeway and patio that has long served as the pub’s main entrance will be enclosed to connect the two areas, project engineer Mark Toretti of PennTerra and architect Nate Hutchinson of Fernsler Hutchinson told the board. A new entrance will be created on Calder Way near the Pugh Street corner, and a door at the current breezeway will be exit only.
“[The new entrance] will allow less congestion of pedestrians waiting to get in. You know, they wrap all the way around the corner up to College Avenue sometimes. So it’s a popular place,” Hutchinson said. “The new entry on Calder Way is fully accessible. You no longer have to go to a secondary entry if you have mobility limitations.”
While the existing Doggie’s Pub in the Foster Building will remain mostly the same, the ground-floor space in the Homerella Building will add a new bar, restrooms and a seating and standing area. The space where the breezeway is currently located will also become a standing area, according to the plans.
Overhead garage-style doors with glass will open from the new bar onto the outdoor courtyard, Hutchinson said. Those will be kept open during warmer weather and closed during colder months, with door access available to the courtyard.
“That’s going to serve the courtyard area a lot better than what they have now and and it’s also it’s going to really brighten up this whole space for the patrons,” Hutchinson said. “I think it’ll be a popular spot for people that want to go to Doggies. It’s going to be a little brighter.”
Both the breezeway area and part of the courtyard will be regraded to match the level of the level of the Homerella building’s ground floor, Toretti said.
The exterior from the existing Doggie’s to the Calder Way corner will also get a new 12-foot facade utilizing brick and panel, with a change in color from the current gray stucco on the Homerella Building to a copper red.
Hutchinson said the idea is to give the building “a little more of an old-world pub facade.”
Doggie’s Pizza and the existing service entrance to the courtyard on Calder Way will remain unchanged.
Design Review Board members had no comments on the plan and voted unanimously to advance it to the borough Planning Commission, which will review it during a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at the State College Municipal Building.
Construction on the expansion is expected to begin in April and completed in the fall of 2026.
Business owners Tom and Kelley Trosko have operated Doggie’s Pub since 2018, when it replaced the Rathskellar & Garden. Both the Foster and Homerella buildings are owned by the Herlocher family’s Cornelius LLC, which is the applicant on the land development plan.
The ground floor of the Homerella Building has been vacant since its last tenant, VHS Skateshop, moved to 244 E. Calder Way in March.
