Design Review Committee fails to give green light to 2 projects

YOUNGSTOWN

Expressing concerns about a pair of projects that are meant to beautify downtown, the city’s Design Review Committee declined to give either the go-ahead.

The committee did, however, approve Tuesday a project to build a solar screen made out of 3-D-printed bricks to be located on the corner of Front Street and Vindicator Square on a grassy area of The Vindicator.

The three projects are among five selected for funding under a $100,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant awarded last year to Youngstown State University for downtown beautification as part of the Innovative Plan for Leveraging Arts Through Community Engagement [INPLACE] Initiative.

DRC members said they had issues with two of the three proposals seeking approval Tuesday from the committee that oversees exterior projects in the city’s downtown and surrounding areas.

The committee voted in favor of the design of a bus shelter sculpture fabricated from a shipping container and steel. But its members didn’t approve the proposed location on Market Street in front of the Mahoning County Courthouse.

The major concern from committee members is the bus shelter – which would replace one at the same location – takes up too much of the sidewalk possibly making it more congested for people walking in that area, said Bill D’Avignon, DRC chairman and the city’s Community Development Agency director. Committee members suggested a different location such as in front of International Towers, also on Market Street, or somewhere else downtown where there isn’t a bus shelter.

Also, the committee chose to postpone a vote on lighting an unused concrete railway arch that crosses Mahoning Avenue, just west of the Western Reserve Transit Authority headquarters.

Committee members said they didn’t like that the light would shine down on the street rather than on the archway’s walls, and also wanted the designers of the project to consider solar lights rather than the planned LED lights.

The two proposals could be back in front of the DRC at its next meeting, March 7.

The committee did approve one INPLACE project. That proposal, designed by Kent State University students, is to build a solar screen of 3-D-printed bricks that is 14 feet wide; 5-feet, 4-inches to 6-feet, 8-inches tall; and 6-feet deep on The Vindicator property.

The projects must be finished by the end of July to receive the federal funding.