Black Flag Building Workshop

Building Workshop

Bridge Street, Struthers

Three small public projects on one downtown street: a creekside patio, a parking lot set with a salvaged date stone, and a pocket park for gathering and performance.

Location
Struthers, Ohio
Years
2025 to 2026
Status
Drawings complete, not built
Partner
Community Improvement Corporation of Mahoning County and the Western Reserve Port Authority; Technical Resource Consultants (162 S. Bridge)
Rendering of the creekside patio at 184 S. Bridge Street: a person walks a ramped terrace with a dark steel rail beside a brick building and a planted cedar screen, the creek, an old industrial building, trees and the bridge drawn in pencil behind.
PL. 01 The creekside patio at 184 S. Bridge Street, arrival view, December 2025: the model drawn into the hand sketch of the creek corridor.

Bridge Street is the spine of downtown Struthers. Working with the Western Reserve Port Authority and the Community Improvement Corporation of Mahoning County, Black Flag designed three small public projects along it, each meant to give people a reason to stop.

At 184 S. Bridge, a rear service yard on the bank of Yellow Creek becomes an 800 square foot coffee-shop patio: terraced stone walls, a stamped concrete terrace and native planting that stitch the building back into the creek corridor. A neglected back-of-house edge turns into a public overlook.

At 162 S. Bridge, working under Technical Resource Consultants, the project's civil engineer, a parking lot improvement adds native landscaping and segmental retaining wall planters that carry the date stone of a building the town lost. At 122 S. Bridge, a 5,000 square foot infill lot becomes a pocket park and small performance venue: a raised semicircular platform and checkerboard dance floor, stamped concrete walks, brick piers with steel fencing, and planted borders chosen to last. Bollard lighting and underground power support evening programs and food trucks along the alley.

The drawings are complete; the projects did not proceed to construction when federal recovery funding ended.

Process

One street, three sites, worked one after another. Each began with a walk of the site, then the drawings pushed it forward. Construction drawings appear as cropped excerpts, without notes or title blocks, and are not for construction.

  1. The rear of a two-story brick building above the creek, the yard overgrown with brush and young trees.

    Site walk, 184 S. Bridge

    The rear service yard, overgrown, with the creek just below. The patio starts here.

  2. Ink sketch on trace of the view across Yellow Creek: a gridded brick building on the left, bare trees, the stone bank and the Bridge Street bridge running across to the right.

    Arrival, ink on trace

    The creek corridor drawn by hand first. The model went in over this drawing.

  3. Concept site plan on a colored base map: the building outline at top and the patio stepping down toward the creek, marked up in red with terraced boulder and stone retaining walls, a ramp and stamped concrete.

    Patio, scheme 1

    Marked up by hand over the site plan: terraced boulder and stone retaining walls, a ramp, stamped concrete stepping down to the creek.

  4. A salvaged terracotta block carved with a numeral 5, lying on leaves with a tape measure stretched across it, other carved pieces nearby.

    The date stone, measured

    Pieces of a demolished building's date stone, measured on site to be set into the new planters at 162 S. Bridge.

  5. Site plan of the pocket park: a wave-shaped walkway crossing the lot between two buildings, a checkerboard floor below it, a semicircular stage at the front, trees, a fountain and a statue.

    Pocket park, iteration 1

    First pass at 122 S. Bridge: a wave of walkway, a checkerboard dance floor, a stage at the street.

  6. Drafted sheet of enlarged plans, sections and a partial elevation of segmental retaining wall planters along the parking lot, with orange dimensions and notes.

    Planters, 162 S. Bridge

    Segmental retaining wall planters along the lot, detailed to carry the date stone.

  7. Drafted site plan of the creekside patio: the building in gray at top, the patio terrace with tables along its edge, a curved stone slope down toward the creek, dimensioned and keyed in orange.

    Patio, site plan

    Scheme 1 drawn to scale: the terrace along the building, tables at the rail, the stone slope curving down toward the creek.

  8. Drafted transverse section: a concrete patio slab on fill against the existing building wall, a guard rail at its edge, and a stepped stone slope with plantings falling away below.

    Patio, section

    The cut through the bank: a slab against the old wall, a guard rail, stone stepping down with planting between.

  9. Drafted site plan of the pocket park between two existing buildings: the curving walkway, a checkerboard floor, the semicircular platform and planting, dimensioned in orange.

    Pocket park, review set

    The curve settled and dimensioned: raised semicircular platform, checkerboard floor, brick piers and fencing at the edges.

  10. Drafted elevations and details of brick piers with limestone caps and steel fence panels between them, one panel angled, with a section through a pier footing and a lit bollard.

    Pocket park, piers and fence

    Brick piers with limestone caps, steel fence panels between, a lit bollard detail.

Yellow Creek running low between overgrown banks, the back of a brick building on Bridge Street visible through bare trees.
PL. 02 Yellow Creek behind Bridge Street. The patio turns a neglected service yard toward it.
An empty grass lot between two downtown buildings, one with a whitewashed lower wall and the other in red brick with a round medallion.
PL. 03 122 S. Bridge Street before the pocket park: a 5,000 square foot infill lot between two buildings.

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