Black Flag Building Workshop

Black Flag Building Workshop, architecture practice in Youngstown, Ohio

Black Flag Building Workshop · Youngstown, Ohio

Architecture for community resilience.

A licensed architecture practice from Youngstown, working across the region on food systems, adaptive reuse, and community infrastructure.

RA · AIA · LEED AP BD+C · NCARB Licensed in Ohio & Wisconsin

Hand-drawn floor plan, iteration 1, black ink with red notes on the CSA counter, wall shelving and window seating.
Hand-drawn floor plan, iteration 2, with an extra counter and corner shelving marked in red.
Hand-drawn floor plan, iteration 3, with a red list of pros and cons beside the plan.
Process Glick Farm Store, three iterations of one plan, February 2026.

It starts with food. Communities are stronger when they have a hand in how they're fed. We design the places where food is grown, made, sold, and shared: farm stops and markets, cafes and restaurants, grocery buildouts, commercial and shared kitchens, and the facilities that connect growers to the people they feed.

We also take on adaptive reuse and new construction, feasibility studies and master planning, along with the everyday work that keeps a building sound, from additions to permit drawings. Rooted in Youngstown, with work across Ohio and beyond.

The practice

Building Workshop
Food systems, adaptive reuse, new construction and planning.
Field Notes
Sketchbooks, drawings and studies: the drawing practice that runs alongside the buildings.
Common Grounds Studio
The civic side: board service, community food work, the river, and gatherings.

Selected work

Store interior under exposed engineered trusses and tall clerestory windows, a neon Glick Farm Store sign above stocked retail shelving and a checkout counter.

Glick Farm Store

Cleveland, Ohio (Ohio City) · 2026 · Complete

A farm store for Ohio City Farm: a retail and CSA hub giving international newcomer families reliable food access in Cleveland's Ohio City, and a place for local producers to sell the lunches they make.

The single-story brick building at 146 W. South Street seen from the corner, a dark standing-seam canopy running the length of its storefront glazing, under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Local Roots Market & Cafe

Wooster, Ohio · Opening 2027 · Out to bid

A new home for Wooster's community-owned food cooperative: a full grocery of local and regional producers returning to downtown, with a cafe and, later, a shared commercial kitchen for area food businesses.

Rendering of the creekside patio at 184 S. Bridge Street: a person walks a ramped terrace with a dark steel rail beside a brick building and a planted cedar screen, the creek, an old industrial building, trees and the bridge drawn in pencil behind.

Bridge Street, Struthers

Struthers, Ohio · 2025 to 2026 · Drawings complete, not built

Three small public projects on one downtown street: a creekside patio, a parking lot set with a salvaged date stone, and a pocket park for gathering and performance.

All work →

Field Notes

Study Winter 2022

Manistee, forest floor

Studies of fungi and bark in the northern Manistee National Forest: 3D scans built from photographs, and bark panoramas stitched into tall strips.

4 plates →

Browse the archive →

Start a project

Starting a project? Send the address, a rough scope, and your timeline to info@blackflagbuilding.co.

Services →