SitemapStudents from the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center’s landscape management program are helping to transform the U.S. 422 Corridor.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the students installed landscaped beds of pollinator plants, shrubs and small trees through a vision created by the Kent State University Graduate Landscape Architecture Program and Youngstown State University Regional Economic Development Initiative.
The project complements other improvements along the corridor in Youngstown and Girard. The U.S. 422 Corridor Redevelopment Plan was created in 2014 through a partnership led by the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, Youngstown Neighborhood Corp. and Trumbull County Commissioners.
The installation, at the intersection of Superior Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is the first of several phases and is in line with the goals set forth in the U.S. 422 Corridor Redevelopment Plan, the chamber says. This phase consists of installing native pollinator plants, shrubs and small trees. Later phases will involve planting evergreen trees to provide a natural barrier between the neighborhood and the traffic of the industrial corridor, as well as aid in stormwater management.
“The student experience for the Graduate Landscape Architecture studios at Kent State University includes real sites, real issues and real people so that projects reflect an authentic response to the needs of a community,” said Charles Frederick, interim director of the KSU program. “This requires a student to address stakeholder concerns and the realities of the site.”
Additional design input and project management for this phase were provided by the Regional Chamber and city of Youngstown, while the Ruth Beecher Charitable Trust helped to fund specific construction design and implementation. Landscape Architect Jodi McCue of McCue Design Group LLC, which facilitated the construction plan, also donated several trees to the effort. Lunch for the students on the planting dates was sponsored by Vallourec Star.
“We’re so pleased to work with local students from Kent and the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, as we helped to give them experience in their field, while they helped us implement part of our plans for the corridor,” said Lauren Johnson, project manager for the 422 Corridor plan. “This project will have an immediate, tangible impact in the Brier Hill neighborhood, and we look forward to continued partnerships in coming months.”
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