The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which celebrate its centennial this year, extol virtues paramount to leading an upstanding life – service, integrity and physical well-being chief among them. When the BSA’s Dan Beard Council, a Cincinnati-based BSA organization that serves eight, Greater Cincinnati districts, moved from cramped digs to a spacious facility last summer – the Marge Schott Scout Achievement Campus and Col. James T. Hatfield Scout Center — Council leaders wanted its property to make a powerful, visual statement.
Working with Messer Construction, the general contractor, BHDP Architecture (Cincinnati) coordinated the facility’s interior graphics. Justin Molloy, principal of Cincinnati-based Signitecture who then served as an environmental-graphic designer for BHDP, said the project entailed striking a balance between the “inspiring now” of Scouting while honoring its traditions and legacy.
Numerous Cincinnati-based vendors contributed to the project:
• DSD Systems, the project’s graphics contractor, fabricated the 18-ft.-tall, MDF cabinets that feature digitally printed, canvas wallpaper;
• Photo Lab Inc. output the printed wallpaper;
• Matthews Intl. (Pittsburgh) developed the floor medallions and various aluminum identification panels;
• Plastigraphics fabricated the room plaques, main-corridor display panels and donor wall;
• Signitecture coordinated the project’s content management and display-panel image selection;
• Ken Luken Construction built the wood treehouse and reclaimed-canvas banners;
• High Tech Signs fabricated the LEED feature wall (the Center’s green construction materials and methods earned LEED Silver recognition);
• And, Holthaus Signs, which worked directly with Messer, fabricated the exterior-building signage.
To borrow the Scout motto and slogan, “be prepared” for signage that will “do a good turn daily” to create a sense of pride and place for thousands of Cincinnati area Boy Scouts.