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Cincinnati architecture firm expecting big things

SFA Architects is designing two Dayton schools and has done work at WPAFB.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 12:28 AM Thursday, October 8, 2009

DAYTON — SFA Architects Inc. is designing two new schools for the Dayton public school district, has done work for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and is hoping to win work for other school systems and colleges in the region.

Not bad for a firm that just opened its Dayton office in July.

“We’re anticipating future growth,” said John Rademacher, principal of SFA, who is leading the firm’s effort to find new business in the Miami Valley.

It started with the Dayton school district. As a condition of hiring SFA for the school design work, the district required that SFA establish a Dayton office, Rademacher said.

The firm did some research and determined that the Dayton market has business appeal, he said. SFA fulfilled its commitment by establishing an office on the 18th floor of the Liberty Tower, at 120 W. Second St. downtown, under a three-year lease.

SFA designed River’s Edge Montessori, a Dayton school whose construction is getting under way. SFA also is participating in the design work for a Dayton school to be known as Wilbur Wright Elementary.

SFA’s workload also includes a project to design an administration building for the Trotwood-Madison school district, and overseeing elevator replacements for the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority, Rademacher said.

In Dayton, SFA joins a crowded field of competitors including Lorenz + Williams, Pinnacle Architects, Rogero Buckman Architecture and Alan Scherr Associates.

SFA Architects, established in 1967, is based in Cincinnati and has done some of its most prominent projects in that region. They have included an addition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s water research laboratory in Cincinnati, a makeover of the Ohio Department of Health’s Summit Behavioral Healthcare Center, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College’s new student life center, and various projects at Miami University in Oxford.

SFA expanded its work force in September by combining with PDT Design, another Cincinnati design and architecture practice.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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