BSHM Expands Team and Portfolio
By Jay Crafton, vice president
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio For over 57 years, since 1962, BSHM Architects has been providing architectural design services for educational (PK-12 / Collegiate), historic preservation, civic, housing and commercial facilities from their downtown Youngstown office, and since 1999 from their Columbus office.
Due to BSHM’s ongoing commitment to provide green schools for students and teachers, the firm was notified in September to recognize their involvement with the U.S. Green Building Council. Having completed 24 LEED certified projects, BSHM is ranked 14th in the world for dedication to sustainable design. In 2018, two recently completed projects received their LEED certifications: Cleveland Heights High School achieved LEED Gold and Johnstown Monroe Elementary School achieved LEED Silver. In the upcoming year, BSHM plans to pursue LEED Fellow Status, the building council’s highest honor.
Having designed over 5 million square feet of new construction and renovation projects over the past decade, BSHM’s portfolio continues to grow with their latest acquisition, with our design partners at Holabird+Root from Chicago, of the Berkshire Local School District’s new 204,000 square-foot PK-12 facility. The facility will be situated adjacent to the Kent State University – Geauga Campus. BSHM is making strides in designing sustainable educational facilities, designing truly “healthy” and tech savvy learning environments.
Another notable current project is Licking Heights High School, a 243,600-square-foot building which is nearing the drawing completion date and construction will commence this Spring. Additional large-scale projects include the new Revere High and Bath Elementary Schools, which were done in collaboration with Perkins + Will from Chicago. Both schools will continue construction for the Revere Local School District through 2020.
A major completed project highlight of 2018 was the August grand opening of the 127,000-square-foot Champion PK-8 School. The district was academically progressive, and therefore understood the benefits of collaborative learning environments, better positioning students for their future. This is accomplished through the design of academic houses containing two grade levels in each pod, centered around an open extended learning area where students learn and collaborate with one another.
Also, of note, the firm’s portfolio of collegiate work continued to grow with the completion of Youngstown State University Ward Beecher Hall Biology Lab and Beeghly Center Natatorium renovations in September 2018. In the coming year, BSHM looks forward to the February 2019 opening of the University of Akron Institute of Human Science & Culture. The 11,000-square-foot renovation transforms the 1915 commercial building’s third and fourth floors into archival storage, display galleries, in addition to classroom and office space.
All projects designed by BSHM use Revit, Building Information Modeling software used with engineering consultants to coordinate building components. Updates in BIM and cloud-sharing software provides the ability to showcase design across various media, allowing seamless collaboration between both BSHM office locations, as well as with our current collaborative partners, Perkins+Will and Holabird+Root, both of Chicago.
As the firm’s workload remained steady, BSHM gained five new employees between the Youngstown and Columbus offices: one architect and four architectural support team members and looks forward to continuing growth in 2019.
The BSHM staff remains involved on various design review and community non-profit organizations, including The Youngstown Symphony, Mahoning Valley Historical Society, The Friends of The Rich Center for Autism, Rotary, as well as a multitude of design review and zoning boards. Additionally, William Hrinko serves as Commander of Civil Air Patrol’s Youngstown Air Reserve Station Squadron. Through community engagement, BSHM looks forward to advancing their presence in Youngstown, Columbus and surrounding regions in the upcoming year.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
