YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Mahoning Valley Historical Society will announce Thursday morning that the first-floor galleries and archives at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center downtown will open effective 1 p.m. that day.
The society will also provide a status report on its fundraising campaign and announce a “major gift” to the organization, said its executive director, Bill Lawson. Several events already have been staged in the building’s ballroom.
Lawson and architect Paul J. Ricciuti appeared this morning before the city’s Design Review Committee to make two requests -- one on the agenda, one a last-minute addition -- related to the Tyler Center. The committee approved 14-inch die-cut lettering to be affixed to the building’s eastern face bearing the center’s name and a pair of stanchions to be placed on the east and west sides of the building that would feature banners publicizing current exhibits.
The letters will be aligned 15 inches from the edge of the building’s elevator tower and 40 feet above the ground, according to Lawson and renderings provided to the committee. Lights attached from the roof would wash down on the lettering.
The stanchions were a “last-minute idea,” Ricciuti said. Although the historical society sought permission to add them, they remain a possibility as opposed to a definite addition to the structure, he continued. Since the building has no marquee there is “no way to identify” any exhibit that is on display there, he said.
The banners would be five or six feet long, he said. The society’s Arms Family Museum of Local History similarly advertises exhibits on banners hung on a pole in front of the Wick Avenue museum. The stanchions would be attached to the brick and not the building’s terra cotta, he added.
Additionally, the committee approved construction of a pilaster, or pier, reusing materials salvaged from the demolition of the Paramount Theater, to be placed at the site of the demolished building, at West Federal and North Hazel streets, which features a parking area and landscaping.
The pilaster will stand nearly 13 feet high and will have a historical plaque featuring a 1930s image of the theater.
“We made an effort to salvage these pieces when they were doing the demolition,” said John DeFrance, a member of the committee and an architect with Olsavky Jaminet Architects, Youngstown, which donated design services for the project.
The city, which stored the pieces, will provide the foundation and the plaque. Lencyk Masonry, Boardman, will build the pilaster and Masonry Materials Plus, Youngstown, will provide brick needed for the project.
Although nothing has been scheduled yet the work itself should take only a week, DeFrance said. It’s important to get the terra cotta reinstalled before it is lost or damaged, he warned.
“You don’t need extremely warm weather to do it, just anything above 40 degrees,” he said.
The architect also suggested the possibility of doing something with materials salvaged during the demolition of the former McKelvey building years ago. “There are so many landscaped areas around the city that we could use for such an opportunity,” he said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.