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Creator Square is an artisan residency program based in the historic, rust belt community of Johnstown, PA, located one hour southeast of Pittsburgh. Connecting the dots between its industrial past and the maker’s movement, Creator Square welcomes craftspeople and small business owners to transform their creative practices into sustainable craft businesses during one or two year residencies.

In addition to founding the non-profit organization, Paul Rosenblatt’s architectural firm, Springboard Design, was responsible for the bold adaptive reuse strategy that guided the renovation of the existing downtown Johnstown Parkview Building on Gazebo Park into a studio building. Layers of the pre-existing construction are plainly preserved and juxtaposed with new interventions to celebrate the colors and textures of the past and the process of construction and deconstruction.

The program of the renovations included creating four individual maker studios, a storefront gallery and demonstration space, and related shared collaboration spaces. 

For more information, check out www.creatorsquarejohnstown.com.

Photography of town hall meeting by Todd Berkey – The Tribune Democrat.