More repurposed B.F. Goodrich artifacts to be amid furnishings, art at Bounce Innovation Hub

Pieces of Akron's days as the rubber capital of the world are being salvaged to furnish and decorate a modern shared workspace in a former B.F. Goodrich building.

When the nonprofit Bounce Innovation Hub opened in Akron in 2019, its first-floor Generator space — which has open co-working and event space, a makerspace, a cafe, conference rooms and offices — featured more than 150 works by 79 Northeast Ohio artists. A number of the items were made from salvaged artifacts from the abandoned B.F. Goodrich power plant nearby at 538 S. Main St.

Karen Starr of Hazel Tree Design Studio was the interior designer for that project. Now, as the city tears down the old B.F. Goodrich smoke stacks, Hazel Tree is entering its second interior design phase at Bounce, which is also in a former B.F. Goodrich building. That will include using more found items from the decommissioned Goodrich power plant in an expanded Generator space on the second floor.

Bounce's second-floor renovation is funded by a $2 million grant from the federal Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA). Over the next year, Starr plans to work with about 80 artists as well as Hasenstab Architects of Akron to create more artwork and furnishings for the second floor, which will extend the first floor's co-working spaces, offices, conference rooms, phone booths and classrooms.

"This space has benefited from remote work" due to the pandemic, said Bounce CEO Jessica Sublett. "It probably fueled the need for the second-floor expansion."

"We call it Bounce 2.0," Starr said. "There's tons of potential."

Finding local inspiration

Starr's first time designing the Bounce space began with a 2018 guided tour of the abandoned B.F. Goodrich plant along with leadership from Bounce and Marc Divis from Akron Energy Systems, which ran the plant as a steam and cooling facility for the city starting in 2009. As Starr found industrial treasures, she tagged items with painter's tape, and heavy items were removed by Akron Energy Systems crews.

As Starr designs the new space, she'll highlight the work of furniture makers and visual artists who have studios in the Bounce building and also draw from her large network of artists to create custom pieces.

The 27,000-square-foot ground-floor Generator space, designed to help entrepreneurs and others with formal and informal networking and support services, opened in May 2019.

"It was our biggest, baddest project to date," Starr said of designing Bounce's first floor. "We wanted it to be a space that no matter where you look, your eye was resting on something interesting."

Amid the variety of first-floor artwork and furnishings are seven photos taken by Cleveland photographer Johnny Joo of Odd World Studio capturing Hazel Tree's 2018 visit to the old B.F. Goodrich plant. One is a photo of the coal hatches that went directly to the smokestacks that are now coming down.

Hazel Tree salvaged 200-pound flanges from the coal hatch doors to frame Joo's photos of the old plant, which are printed on white aluminum. Another photo by Joo is shot upward from the base of a smokestack's coal elevator.

Also downstairs, in the office of Suzanne Smaltz of smaltz insurance, is a custom floor lamp made by Akron lighting company Whiskertin, featuring plant valves that are now power switches and a cleaned-up industrial light shade.

"Our whole thing at Hazel Tree is taking things and reclaiming them and turning them into other things," Starr said.

Amid the other furnishings made from salvaged plant artifacts are the patinaed steel bases of old plant work benches that are now the bases of two custom-made conference room tables. One in the Portage conference room, featuring a huge wood table top created in-house by local artisans John Wilkie and Ed Lewis, features a tire tread border created with a computerized machine at Bounce that makes cutouts.

Designing the second floor

Hazel Tree still has a whole pallet of old B.F. Goodrich artifacts to work with waiting in a second-floor warehouse room. They include a bunch of metal steam plant gauges and a metal box with keys inside.

"We work with a lot of found object assemblage artists, and stuff like this will be fun," said Starr, who plans to give the keys to an artist to create an art piece.

With both Generator floors, Bounce aims to continue honoring Akron's industrial history while making a nod to innovation.

"We knew we wanted the space to feel vibrant and of, by and for Akron," Sublett said.

Starr, whose interior design office is on the eighth floor at Bounce, is both a tenant and a Bounce Innovation Hub member. Hazel Tree's showroom and gallery is located at its original location at 143 W. Market St. in Akron.

As Starr designs the second floor, she'll be improving on things like the six phone booths downstairs, created pre-COVID, with desks that are too low for Zoom-type meetings. Ten new phone booths to be created for the second floor will have height-adjustable desks and will be completely sound-proof. They'll include two-person phone booths and four-person huddle rooms, all featuring a locally made light, art piece and a graphic design work with an inspirational quote.

The key for the second-floor renovation is to create more space that's warm and where people want to stay for a while, said Bounce Generator Manager Krissy Kodzev.

"They love the vibe, the history that's in all of the art," she said of Bounce members.

History of the plant

B.F. Goodrich, which produced its own steam for years at the power plant on South Main Street, moved out of the complex in 1987. The city acquired the old power plant at 538 S. Main St. in the late 1980s.

In 2009, the city contracted with Akron Energy Systems to run the steam heat and cooling plant as well as the Recycle Energy System steam plant across the canal. AES ceased steam operation at the former B.F. Goodrich plant in 2015.

The city vacated the old plant building by 2019 and last year approved its demolition. The city built a new energy production facility at 222 Opportunity Parkway in 2020, next to the now-decommissioned Recycle Energy System plant.

Once the Bounce project was done in 2019, Starr went back into the old Goodrich plant to salvage more items for an interior design job at AES' new office space, including a reception desk decorated with gauges and valves, a rolling kitchen cart with sheet metal from the plant and an end table from repurposed copper turbine, all created by Rustbelt Rebirth.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: More Goodrich artifacts to find new life in Bounce Innovation Hub