YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area architectural firms are keeping busy with school district projects around the state and community projects in the Mahoning Valley.
The Business Journal contacted four architectural firms to catch up on their project highlights.
The firms are A Neider Architecture in Boardman, BSHM Architects in Youngstown, Phillips Sekanick Architects in Warren and Strollo Architects in Youngstown.
Here is an update on where they stand.
A Neider Architecture
Annissa K. Neider, principal at A Neider Architecture LLC, is working on both the First National and Huntington bank buildings in downtown Youngstown, which are being redesigned for mixed-use space, primarily apartments. Both projects are expected to move into construction next year, but financing is being worked out for Huntington, she reports.
“We’re actively finishing design for the First National Bank building, which was a fun project with the historical nature – really what we specialize in at our firm,” she says.
Neider also is working with Youngstown on converting the former McDonald’s on Market Street to a community center. The center also will serve as a police output office, where officers can go to complete paperwork while on patrol and serve other community needs.
“It could be a bunch of different things,” she says. “It could be rented for showers. It could be a community meeting space.”
The building has “good bones to it” and the interior was fairly clean after having been abandoned for several years, she says. The building already had a kitchen that she designed to be smaller and restrooms.
“Retrofitting that into a community space was actually a pretty good reuse of that building,” Neider says. “Construction is ongoing there. It’s starting to take shape and not look so much like a McDonald’s anymore.”
Other city projects Neider is working on include renovations at Homestead Park on the South Side. Work there includes gutting and rebuilding the existing restrooms to make them compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, cleaning up the community rental space and replacing the playground equipment.
Other local work includes outdoor patios at the Varsity Club, downtown, and Double Bogey’s Bar & Grill, Boardman. Additionally, her firm is working around the state in partnerships with another firm doing projects at various airports. “It’s become another little niche for us, doing different restaurant renovations and things,” she says.
BSHM Architects
Projects with the Western Reserve Port Authority and Mahoning Valley Historical Society are among the ones BSHM Architects Inc. in Youngstown is working on, partner John Orsini reports.
“We’re keeping pretty busy,” he says.
“This season is similar to last year and the year before.”
For WRPA, the firm is providing services for the renovation of 1915 Belmont Ave., one of several former Steward Health Care properties the port authority acquired in 2023, into a center to serve local veterans. The building previously housed a movie theater, a grocery store and a medical supply company.
“From what I hear, everything seems to be going well in regard to construction,” Orsini reports.
The other port authority project, in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is the creation of Vienna Air Heritage Park on property near Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, which the port authority operates, and Youngstown Air Reserve Station.
Work for the historical society includes 250 E. Federal St., the former IBM Building, downtown, which the MVHS purchased in 2023. The society is renovating the building to accommodate additional storage and create new exhibit space, specifically for the Idora Park artifacts donated by Jim and Toni Amey, founders of Idora Park Experience.
He acknowledges work hasn’t started on the Idora exhibit space, as the main focus now is on restoration of the building. “We wanted to make sure that the exterior was tight,” he says.
“It’s a good building,” with “no major issues,” he says. The 45-year-old building “just needed some upkeep” and when the work is completed it will look pretty much the same as it did before, to maintain the integrity of the urban renewal design. “It’s part of our history,” he says.
Other local projects include work with the city of Youngstown on the Richard W. and Eugenia C. Atkinson Recreation Center.
School construction projects also are part of BSHM’s project mix, including new buildings for Perry Middle School and Quaker Valley schools, and work on existing buildings in the Licking Valley and Johnstown-Monroe districts.
Strollo Architects
Gregg Strollo, president/partner at Strollo Architects, Youngstown, reports his firm has never been busier. Its portfolio includes several education-related projects.
Among the firm’s projects is the new $7 million health and wellness center at Mahoning County Career and Technical Center. The project, which broke ground April 30, is being developed in partnership with Mercy Health and Cadence Care Network. The firm also is working on an $8 million addition at Columbiana County Career & Technical Center to accommodate vehicle mechanic education.
The firm is also working for the Mahoning Valley Community School, which serves at-risk youth. It is renovating the former Ohio Job and Family Services building, 2026 South Ave., which the school purchased in 2023 to become its community learning center. Strollo Architects is working on a $3.5 million addition there to include a gymnasium, cafeteria and a couple multipurpose spaces, he says.
“They’re doing a great job there,” Strollo says. Superintendent Jennifer Merritt is “a real superstar in the world of educating challenged kids. She’s got a great graduation rate and very little recidivism.”
Additionally, the firm is working on the new aviation training building at Youngstown/Warren Regional Airport, a collaboration of the Western Reserve Port Authority, Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics and Youngstown State University, and the renovation of the YSU student center in conjunction with Pittsburgh firm.
“That’s about a $44 million interior renovation with some exterior modifications,” he says.
Outside the Valley, projects include a new central maintenance facility in Elyria.
Strollo attributes the surge in activity at his firm to clients “biding their time” to get though the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. “Also, things just needed to be done,” he remarks.
Phillips Sekanick Architects
“Activity is constant,” Bruce Sekanick, principal at Phillips Sekanick Architects, reports.
Like Strollo Architects, Phillips Sekanick is involved with several school projects. “We’re working right now with a couple school districts. In addition, we’ve interviewed with some other ones, and we’re waiting to hear,” he says.
The firm continues to work with Warren City Schools as the district moves forward with the east bleacher replacement project for Warren G. Harding High School’s stadium. The district is replacing the Depression-era locker room and stands on the east side of the stadium.
“We’ll work to rebuild all of that with modern-day, updated facilities that will serve all of that sports complex there, as opposed to really just be limited to the football stadium it is now,” he says.
The firm also is working on a fire station for Green Township in northern Trumbull County and just contracted with Mecca Township for an administration building that it hopes will be under construction in the next year, he says. In addition, it is working with Trumbull County on a new 911 center.
The firm has several clients in the food service sector and worked with Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop on its expansion into Niles.
“We have a lot of other food service projects that we do those beyond the Valley,” Sekanick reports. That includes work in the Cleveland market, Virginia and Maryland for chains such as Dunkin, Jimmy John’s, Caribou Coffee and Panera Bread.
“We still have Paneras that are being renovated, expanded or remodeled, in addition to some Dairy Queens, so food service remains kind of our base,” he says. “But obviously we’ve expanded to do a lot more projects of different types.”
Other local projects the firm is working on include a potential hotel complex that is in “preliminary development” and a health care facility that, if it comes about, would represent a $20 million project.
“A lot of these things are in the early stages of development,” Sekanick says. “When all those things fall in place, we’re hopeful that it will not only provide our clients with some great facilities, be it either new or upgrades to what they have right now, but also something very nice for the Mahoning Valley.”
Pictured at top: BSHM Architects is working on the renovation of this building at 250 E. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown.