Two company leaders acquire Bell & Spina Architects

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two members of the firm’s leadership team are the new owners of Bell & Spina Architects-Planners, PC, which is based at 215 Wyoming St. in Syracuse.

Dennis Spina, a founding partner, has transferred ownership to Neil Garry, the firm’s VP, and Douglas Arena, who will assume the responsibilities of president, the small business announced.

Garry and Arena bought the firm from Spina, the company tells CNYBJ in an email. Bell & Spina Architects didn’t release any financial terms of the sale. Spina will continue working for the business on a part-time basis, the architecture firm adds.

Garry joined Bell & Spina Architects in 2010 and is the principal-in-charge of the firm’s Rochester office. He will remain VP moving forward, company officials tell CNYBJ. Arena joined Bell & Spina Architects in 2012 and became a partner in 2017.

“We are grateful for Dennis’s leadership through the years; he has been a great mentor to all of us. Fortunately, Dennis has agreed to remain involved in a consulting capacity,” Garry said.

In his 40 years as a full-time architect, Dennis Spina has worked on a few “notable” projects that Bell & Spina Architects completed during Spina’s tenure. They included the roof and skylight replacement at the Everson Museum of Art, roof replacement at the Onondaga County War Memorial, historic preservation and restoration of the roof on the Onondaga County Courthouse, roof replacements at Steele Hall and Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus, roof replacement at The Egg: Center for the Performing Arts at Empire Plaza in Albany, and the exterior rehabilitation at McEwen Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus.

Bell & Spina Architects-Planners is a consulting firm that specializes in the design and rehabilitation of building enclosures, with more than 35 years of work in building-envelope design, forensics, and historic rehabilitation. 

With offices in Syracuse and Rochester, the firm works mainly across the state and, more widely, in the Northeast. Bell & Spina has 24 employees between the two offices, the firm tells CNYBJ.