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Courthouse restoration will be next year
YOUNGSTOWN
As they advertise for bids this month, the Mahoning County commissioners are poised to award contracts early next year and take advantage of the entire 2015 construction season to restore the 103-year-old landmark county courthouse.
With the commissioners scheduled to authorize the advertising Thursday, the advertising of the $6.9 million restoration job is to begin Dec. 23, and bids are to be opened Jan. 28, said Architect Paul Ricciuti of Youngstown, who is advising the county on the project.
“All masonry restoration, copper restoration and roofing contractors are required to be pre-qualified and show that they have extensive experience with projects of this size and historic nature,” said David Mickey, an architect with ms consultants inc. of Youngstown, which is overseeing the project.
Under the project timetable, the contract for the work should be awarded in mid-February, Ricciuti said.
With the scaffolding being erected in March, the goal will be to complete all the work by mid-December 2015, Mickey said.
“If we have to go into another [construction] season, we will have a watertight roof on that building complete by next winter,” said Howard I. Filiere Jr., owner of the Architects Inc. of Cleveland. The work includes replacement of the entire courthouse roof.
“We do want to take advantage of every day that we have available to us in the 2015 construction season, barring any unforeseen circumstances,” and finish the job within 2015, said county Commissioner Anthony Traficanti.
“We’re taking into consideration every cost to keep the project on or under budget,” he added.
“We want to make sure that this courthouse is restored to its former luster,” Traficanti said.
“It’s going to be historically accurately restored,” said Architect Lauren Burge of Chambers, Murphy & Burge restoration architects of Akron. “It’s going to be ready for the next 100 years,” when the work is finished, she added.
Included in the project is about $700,000 for repair or replacement of about 1,500 pieces of molded clay brick or block, known as terra cotta, Ricciuti said.
That work will be performed by Boston Valley Terra Cotta of Orchard Park, N.Y., near Buffalo, which Ricciuti said is one of only two terra cotta makers in the United States. The other one is in California, he said.
The project strategy includes having Boston Valley measure the terra cotta pieces and make molds in advance, so the terra cotta will be ready at the courthouse when it’s needed in the spring, Burge said.
The architects displayed in a recent commissioners’ staff meeting drawings of the courthouse with every piece of terra cotta meticulously identified by number and position.
The work will include removing and reinstalling or replacing the entire perimeter parapet wall above the roof “preserving as much of the original terra cotta as possible” and repairing the rooftop statue pedestal, according to a report to the commissioners from the 10-member project architectural and engineering team.
The project includes $184,000 to load, ship, restore and return the copper statues from storage to the courthouse, where they will be re-installed on the roof.
The courthouse, which has a granite exterior and a marble interior, opened March 6, 1911, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It’s going to look like it was when it was built,” when the work is completed, Filiere said.