RELATED: Despite repairs, local architect feels courthouse is a ‘landmark

By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Despite its need for substantial repair only a decade after its construction, the National R. Jones Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse is an aesthetically appealing downtown anchor that makes a much better use of its location than the parking lot that preceded it, an independent local architect said.

“The building that we have there is a landmark building. It enhanced the entire streetscape of Wick Avenue,” architect Robert Mastriana, a partner in the 4M Co. of Boardman, said of the building. “It’s stunning. It’s timeless, and it’s a real asset to the town,” he said.

“That building is so important. It’s done by a national architect,” with “an impeccable reputation,” he said, referring to Robert A.M. Stern Associates, who created the building’s conceptual design. “They’re one of the most prestigious [architectural] firms in the entire world.”

Stern is founder and senior partner in the New York City firm bearing his name and dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Stern “personally directs the design of each of the firm’s projects,” according to the firm’s website.

“It was perfectly sited and perfectly designed to address the corner,” Mastriana said of the light beige brick and stone courthouse with its curved metal-framed glass curtain wall. “It’s an outstanding, aesthetically perfect addition to the downtown,” he observed.

“These are the kinds of buildings that you want that are highly visible that give the city of Youngstown a new progressive look that we desperately need to entice the growth and the future of the city,” Mastriana said.

“It’s a visual link up the hill to the next great set of buildings at YSU,” said James Yoder, 4M associate architect.

Mastriana and Yoder, who had no involvement in the Jones building’s design or construction supervision, spoke to The Vindicator about the building and its troubles after they recently viewed the facade repair and parking-lot replacement now being performed at the building.

Mastriana acknowledged that it is unusual to have to perform extensive repairs to the exterior of a building and replace its parking lot so soon after its construction.

He said, however, money to repair “a few of these little glitches that need to be addressed at this point in time to give it a lifetime of use” is being “well spent.”

As for the lower-level flooding and parking-lot problems, Yoder said some of the years since it opened have presented extraordinarily heavy rainfall.

Mastriana also noted that new construction up the hill at Youngstown State University has added to the rainwater runoff by putting more area under surfaces, such as roofs and parking lots, that don’t absorb water as the ground normally would.

The city’s combined storm and sanitary sewers, which backed up and flooded the courthouse’s lower level, weren’t designed to take the increased storm- water flow that resulted from the new construction, he added.

Because of its historically swampy location at the bottom of a steep hill, “It’s very hard to get the water out of the site,” Mastriana said.

The main entrance to the courthouse, which is elevated above the street level by a series of steps, is designed in such a way that it would keep any flooding out of the main entrance area, Mastriana said.