YOUNGSTOWN Award-winning courthouse opens doors

Legislation is pending to name the building after a circuit court judge from Youngstown.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The architect of the newly opened Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse said he designed the building as a "gateway to Wick Avenue" and as a structure that would complement other nearby landmarks.
The building's designer, Robert A.M. Stern, a New York City architect and dean of the Yale School of Architecture, was honored Tuesday evening at a reception in the new $22 million building. The reception was attended by several dozen people, mostly Youngstown-area architects and government workers.
One design theme was to create a gateway or hinge "between the center of town and the cultural institutions up above" on Wick Avenue, Stern said. "Youngstown has a tremendous industrial past, much of it built around steel. We wanted to use some metal in the building," he explained.
The courthouse's architecture is also designed to "lock it into the local traditions" and complement the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor on Wood Street and First Presbyterian Church on Wick Avenue.
Award-winning design
Stern received a design excellence award from the Eastern Ohio Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the national professional organization of architects.
The wedge-shaped building, built with buff-colored Ohio brick, has a stone base and features a two-story ceremonial staircase leading to its focal point -- the oak-paneled U.S. Bankruptcy Courtroom of Judge William Bodoh.
Thoroughly bathed in natural light, the southwest-facing fa & ccedil;ade is dominated by a curved glass-and-metal curtain wall within a two-story metal-colonnade porch. Nestled in a hillside on a 3-acre site, the energy-efficient building at 10 E. Commerce St. is designed for potential expansion on its north and east sides.
Legislation is pending in Congress to name the building for senior Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a prominent black Youngstown native.
Who's in the building
Besides the bankruptcy court, the four-story building, which opened last month, houses the IRS, the General Services Administration, U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Trustees (an agency that works with the bankruptcy court). It will eventually house the 17th Congressional District office.
"It has beautiful use of traditional materials like the stone, the brick, the glass. It addressed the context of the city well," said architect Joe Makosky of Ricciuti, Balog and Partners of Youngstown.