UTICA, N.Y. — For one Buffalo-based architecture, civil engineering, and interior-design firm, it wasn’t enough to just work in Utica. That’s why Carmina Wood Design opened an office in the city. The firm recently cut the ribbon on its new 1,800-square-foot office at 54 Franklin Square, just off Genesee Street. “We have this cool little […]
UTICA, N.Y. — For one Buffalo-based architecture, civil engineering, and interior-design firm, it wasn’t enough to just work in Utica. That’s why Carmina Wood Design opened an office in the city.
The firm recently cut the ribbon on its new 1,800-square-foot office at 54 Franklin Square, just off Genesee Street.
“We have this cool little space,” Steven Carmina, the firm’s president and CEO, tells CNYBJ. Carmina signed a multi-year lease with building owner Robert Pellegrino and hired the Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corp. to renovate the space. Work included tearing out old carpeting, redoing the floors along with repairing the ceiling and walls, and adding a new bathroom.
Now the space truly represents Carmina Wood Design, Carmina says. “For us, it needs to demonstrate and show what we do,” he adds.
What the firm does, at least in Utica, is work on a number of housing projects around the city. In partnership with KCG Development & Companies of Indiana, Carmina Wood Design worked on the redesign of the former Globe Woolen Company Mills building. The structure, which sits at the finish line for the 15K Boilermaker Road Race on Court Street, is being converted into mixed-use with mixed-income loft apartments, as well as commercial space on the first floor.
Working on that project is what really got Carmina thinking about opening an office in Utica. “As we were doing Globe Mills, we were constantly looking around and trying to scope the area out,” he recalls.
At the same time, the company received a request for a quote from People First, formerly the Utica Municipal Housing Authority, and is now working with the Vecino Group of Troy to rehabilitate the Chancellor Apartments on Bleecker Street, the redevelopment of an old warehouse at 700 Broad St. into apartments over the next decade, and the rehabilitation of the Olbiston Apartments on Genesee Street with Liberty Affordable Housing of Rome.
“The Olbiston is the kind of project that can demonstrate what can be done and what should be done for low-income housing,” Carmina says. He and his staff have a passion for projects that provide affordable, quality housing for people who need it. “It’s a broad cross section of people who are on the poverty spectrum and also people looking to come out of it,” he notes.
By next May, Carmina expects his firm will be working on six or seven projects around the city, making the Utica office a necessity.
“We want feet on the ground there,” he says. The firm is actively looking to hire people for that office. “We’re looking for hometown kids with a couple years of experience. We want to have people there who can react quickly for us,” Carmina notes.
The office is in a prime location to keep tabs on the firm’s numerous projects and is a great location for employees and clients alike. It’s right next door to the Wisk Baking Company of Utica, which provides a convenient option for breakfast or lunch, and nearby hotels offer options for employees or clients spending the night in Utica.
While the renovation work was completed in July, the firm has been putting the finishing touches on the place such as moving in furniture and getting technology set up.
Established in February 2001 with just three people, Carmina Wood Design now employs 40 and also has an office in Greensboro, North Carolina. The firm will continue to grow in ways that make sense for it, Carmina says.
“I think that our philosophy has always been careful expansion,” he says. Utica makes sense not only for the projects there but also due to Carmina’s own connections to the area. His sister attended Mohawk Valley Community College, and his best friend lives in nearby Ilion.
It also fits because of the city itself, Carmina says. First, it reminds him of Buffalo, where Carmina Wood Design is based. Second, the passion of the people impressed him.
Finally, projects like the new Wynn Hospital and the Wolfspeed’s Mohawk Valley Fab chip plant showed him that Utica is a “comeback city” with solid leadership.
“The leadership is strong and not divided,” Carmina contends. “They are working together.”