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Diverse Projects Keep Valley Architects, Engineers Busy
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Guided by the new owner’s vision, Phillips/Sekanick Architects is completing its plans to remake the resort long known as the Avalon Inn in Howland Township the Avalon Resort and Spa.
The new owner, Avalon Holdings Inc., has directed the Warren architecture firm to make the hotel and its spacious grounds more than just a place for guests to spend the night.
“We’re completely redoing the entire facility,” says Bruce Sekanick, architect and secretary-treasurer of the firm in Warren. “It’s a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the facility.”
While the hotel was renamed the Magnuson Grand Hotel, it was better known by its original name, a fact the CEO of Avalon Holdings, Ron Klingle, appreciated. With a goal of having the project complete and up and running by midsummer 2015, work continues not only to enhance the Avalon Golf and Country Club but transform the hotel into a place where people stay “just because of what it is,” Sekanick continues. “It’s not making it a better hotel. It’s making it a destination.”
The Avalon Resort and Spa is one project among several that keep Phillips/Sekanick and other architectural and engineering firms busy. About 60% of its work is in food service operations, including the new Dunkin’ Donuts in Struthers and a Dairy Queen in Perry Township, Geauga County. The firm’s primary client is Panera Bread for Warren-based Covelli Enterprises, he reports. “About half of our staff is involved in Covelli [Enterprises projects] on an ongoing basis,” he estimates.
Reconciling quality, quantity and cost on projects can pose a challenge, Sekanick acknowledges. “Talking to your architects upfront with a budget in mind is the most helpful thing to all parties,” he says. “We really need to know that before we get started.”
Balog, Steines, Hendricks & Manchester Architects in Youngstown has been successful in the school market, K-12 as well as colleges and universities, says its president, Brett Hendricks. Over the last 12 years, the firm has worked on $800 million in K-12 projects.
Following a slowdown that began in 2011, business picked back up for the firm and in construction overall late last year, Hendricks says. “We’re seeing much more publicly funded projects coming out now in 2014,” he relates.
Among the firm’s recent projects are the renovations of the Harry Burt Building in downtown Youngstown – now the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center run by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society – and the Warren YWCA, which had its pool and locker room converted into residential units for women and their families.
The Burt Building represents the kind of “adaptive reuse” work – taking something and converting it for a different function – that has become a niche for the firm, Hendricks says. The building had “great character but obviously had been neglected over the years,” he remarks. “There’s a lot of personal and architectural pride, fulfillment and enjoyment in taking something a lot of people view as old and useless and giving it new life.”
BSHM Architects is in the fourth phase of modernizing the Ursuline Motherhouse in Canfield, which combines the “Spartan,” dormlike units into larger spaces for the nuns who live there. The combined units are large enough so that each nun has her own bedroom, closet and bathroom.
As with architectural firms, funding is often an issue for engineering firms.
“The business environment remains challenging as communities struggle to find funding” for projects, remarks Stephen Lettieri, managing partner of Thomas Fok and Associates Inc. The engineering firm in Austintown provides services for various infrastructure areas, including roads, highways, and bridges.
Construction is winding down on a $65 million highway project that that Fok designed in 2011 for District 12 of the Ohio Department of Transportation, which included the rebuilding of 8.3 miles of Interstate 90 in Lake County, Lettieri reports. Improvements to the roadway include replacing pavement, redecking five mainline bridges, interchange and drainage improvements and lighting.
Closer to home, two years ago construction was completed on the widening of Western Reserve Road in Mahoning County, which Fok designed in 2011, between state Route 46 and U.S. Route 62. “This project widened a narrow two-lane rural roadway to meet current design standards,” he says. Construction is beginning on the Parkman Road upgrade in Warren from Southern Boulevard to Northfield Avenue.
Lynn, Kittinger & Noble Inc., a consulting firm in Warren, deals mainly with civil engineering projects and does “a considerable amount of work” with Trumbull County on sanitary and wastewater environmental issues as well as land development and site plans, says William Makosky, principal engineer and secretary.
The firm recently completed the Kermont Heights sanitary sewer project in Hubbard Township, a $3.2 million project for which it provided construction administration and engineering services, he reports. Other projects the company is involved in are sanitary sewer projects elsewhere in the county, including Kinsman and Newton Falls.
“Every project is unique,” Makosky says. In the case of the Kermont Heights project, groundwater issues posed challenges.
At Cernica Engineering Inc. in Boardman, owner John Cernica reports business has held steady over the past few years, “probably about average.” Projects for the engineering firm, which does foundation work, include St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center, the new Canfield branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, which has an Oct. 3 groundbreaking scheduled, and various school projects.
The region is drawing interest from beyond the Mahoning Valley, where Pittsburgh-based Desmone Architects sees “a lot of potential,” according to principal Travis Kriedler. Among the western Pennsylvania projects the firm is involved in are CCL Container’s 80,000-square-foot addition in Hermitage and a new manufacturing site and laboratory for a private client in Greenville.
“Business is rebounding and we are seeing an increase in new design contracts and new project inquiries. Statistically, this is a national trend and should translate into construction activity going into increased construction activity going into 2015,” Kreidler says. The increase is taking place across the market sectors the firm serves, with the most activity in industrial, hospitality and office.
One of the biggest challenges Desmone faces, particularly in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, is meeting design and construction schedules, Kreidler says. “These new or expanding companies are growing rapidly and eager to get under operations to stay competitive,” he explains.
Desmone’s response had been to form strategic partnerships with contractors in a “design/build delivery method” to reduce the schedules for projects and make them run more efficiently. The firm’s partners in this segment include Wesex Corp. in West Middlesex, with which Desmone has successfully completed several projects, he reports.
Pictured: Bruce Sekanick, secretary-treasurer of Phillips/Sekanick Architects, estimates 60% of the firm’s work is done in the food service industry, with Covelli Enterprises leading the way.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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