(Ford City, PA) It’s 81 degrees Fahrenheit, the humidity oppressive at 69 percent, as an electrician and an electrician apprentice find refuge in the abundant shade under a maple tree during their 15-minute break.
Across Fourth Avenue, nearly 20 other workers on this late-July day are wearing sunglasses mirrored or darkened as the brilliant midmorning sun glares off metal studs and reflects from flooring in the exposed framework of a BC3 @ Armstrong facility under construction in Ford City.
Aside a small computer on the desk of his nearby construction trailer, within reach of his white hard hat, yellow tape measure and flat multi-colored carpenter pencils, Kenny Houser Jr. has a red pail half-filled with sweet-, sour- and tart-flavored hard candy.
“For the workers,” said Houser, of DiMarco Construction, Clairton, and the site superintendent. “Whenever they have questions or want to look at the plans, it’s a little treat.”
So too will be the completion early this month of a roof shielding electrician Pat Noullet, electrician apprentice Brian Weider and other workers whom Houser sees in the abundant shade under a maple tree during their 15-minute breaks near his construction trailer.
“It’ll be every bit of 10 to 15 degrees cooler inside the building,” Houser said. “When the roof is on.”
Lobby to showcase razed school’s keystone
That roof will crown the state-of-the-art BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City, which will occupy 15,000 square feet and accommodate an enrollment increase as high as 426 percent since BC3 @ Armstrong in Manor Township opened a half-mile away in 2015.
BC3 announced intentions to relocate BC3 @ Armstrong to Ford City in October 2019. The college held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility in September and site preparation began in January.
The $6.5 million building is expected to be completed in early 2023.
The placement of structural steel has been completed, Houser said, and exterior framing for walls nearly completed.
“We’re coming along pretty well,” Houser said.
BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City could possibly open to students during the spring semester, said Brian Opitz, BC3’s executive director of operations.
The facility is being built on a nearly two-acre site where Ford City Junior-Senior High School was razed in 2018 and was designed, Opitz said, “with Ford City in mind.”
"We’re coming along pretty well."
Opitz said he and Dave Harris, of DPH Architecture, Canfield, Ohio, viewed designs of downtown buildings during a walk through the borough.
“There are some amazing churches and industrial buildings in Ford City,” Opitz said. “And we incorporated some of those design elements into the building.”
Incorporated into the design elements of the building will be the keystone of the former Ford City Junior-Senior High, Opitz said.
The former school’s approximately 12-inch-high by 24-inch-wide sandstone keystone, dated at 1909, will be inlaid into a lobby wall of the new facility, Opitz said.
“Right inside the main entrance doors,” Opitz said. “On a prominent wall.”
And not far from up to six classroom spaces, a natural science laboratory, a student lounge, a laptop bar and staff and faculty offices.
“People walk by every day,” Opitz said, “and are really excited about this new opportunity for them.”
BC3 will be the sole tenant of a one-story facility owned by the Nonprofit Development Corp., Butler, Opitz said.
Project receives public-private support
BC3 has received public-private support for BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City, which elected officials and business leaders have said they expect to generate commerce in the borough’s downtown in addition to educating students.
Former state Rep. Jeff Pyle, a graduate of the former junior-senior high school and a resident of Ford City, and state Sen. Joe Pittman worked to secure a state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant toward construction of the facility.
Armstrong County commissioners; Snyder Associated Companies, Kittanning, BelleFlex Technologies and PulFlex Technologies, Ford City; and NexTier Bank, which has locations in Armstrong and Butler counties, have also contributed or pledged support of the project.
“People walk by every day and are really excited about this new opportunity for them.”
Noullet and Weider cross Fourth Avenue toward the BC3 @ Armstrong facility under construction in Ford City, where on this late-July day they will place underground conduit for electrical floor boxes, and join other workers who are securing plywood sheathing and metal studs for walls.
“When we get these hot days,” Houser said, “it’s definitely tough on everybody.”
BC3 @ Armstrong in Manor Township is the newest of the five additional locations the college has created to serve under-represented counties in Pennsylvania with higher education, and currently offers two-year transfer programs in business administration, general studies and psychology.
BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City may introduce noncredit workforce development opportunities in advance of developing associate degree career programs in technical fields.
View timeline photos of the construction of BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City at bc3.edu/armstrong-gallery.
