The Buckeye Ranch Tour

AIA Columbus Invites AIA Dayton Members to Tour McCall Sharp’s $35M Project in Grove City

AIA Dayton member Steve Sharp, FAIA, echos the invitation. The project is a residential behavior health facility for youth that he's been working on for four years. The project will be completed in November, and AIA Columbus has scheduled a tour for Monday, June 16 at 4:00 PM. The tour is approved for 1.5 AIA HSW credit and the cost for AIA members to register is $15.

The Buckeye Ranch is an organization that offers emotional, behavioral, and mental health services to children and their families ever since its founding in 1961. That year, a home serving 10 boys was built on 85 acres of wooded and open land in what was then a rural area off Hoover Road in Grove City. The Buckeye Ranch now serves over 7,000 people through their continuum of care including residential mental health treatment, community and school-based services, child welfare and foster care, and integrated care coordination services. The Hoover Road site remains the primary long-term residential care for troubled youth, serving over 80 kids. The city has grown up around the campus, but the last update to the residential buildings was in 1991, which means upgrades are necessary to meet current standards of treatment and care.

McCall Sharp Architecture worked with The Ranch to design a new 40,000 square feet residential and administration building that can accommodate 48 youths in 4 communities separated by age and gender. The building design contains elements to enhance the residents' well-being, such as multiple height roofs, high ceilings, lots of glass, brick walls, and a residential scale of architecture. The tour highlights the new residential and administration building but it also includes the renovation and expansion of the current facilities to provide both an education center and a dining center that serves all the kids on the campus.

According to Steve, "it is the most challenging and interesting project I have designed." Mark June 16 on your calendar and take a drive to Grove City to see the project!