Staff photo / Andy Gray From left, Meghan Reed, Trumbull County Historical Society Executive Director and Ryan MacLennan, Director of Operations and Outreach, stand in front of some of the small props donated by Warren native John Zabrucky that will be featured in the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Entertainment editor Andy Gray serves on the advisory board and the architect selection committee for the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts.

WARREN — After more than a year of discussion, the proposed science fiction museum in the city now has a name and an architecture firm to help make it a reality.

The building the Trumbull County Historical Society purchased at 410 Main Ave. SW will be transformed into the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts by Washington, D.C.-based firm Hickok Cole.

Warren native and 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate John Zabrucky donated more than 500 pieces to the historical society in 2023 that had been created by Modern Props, the southern California company he co-founded. Zabrucky’s work has appeared in hundreds of films and television shows, including “Blade Runner,” “Men in Black” and most incarnations of the “Star Trek” franchise. Over the last year, a dozen semi-trailer trucks have made the trip from California to Trumbull County with those creations, which currently are in storage and being cataloged.

TCHS Executive Director Meghan Reed and Ryan MacLennan, its director of operations and outreach, said both decisions are important steps forward for the project.

THE NAME

The debate about what to call the museum started shortly after Zabrucky’s donation in the spring of 2023. Around that time, Zabrucky suggested naming it the Museum of Science Fiction Arts. While dozens of other possibilities were considered, the final selection ended up close to his initial preference.

“It seemed like the best name for a museum that could sustain itself long term, that could be a national draw,” MacLennan said. “Other names that were suggested seemed a little bit more kitsch, a little bit more localized, and we want to make this a museum that is sustainable long term and impacts our community.”

Reed added, “It was really important to John that ‘arts’ was in the name. … He sees his work very much as art. One of the pieces that we’re looking at now is how we can build out a space that looks at science fiction and fantasy (but also) looks at not just prop making, but illustration and set design as an art form. And we’re really excited to explore that further.”

Fantasy was added to the name to broaden its potential appeal and open up the possibilities of encompassing traditional science fiction properties such as “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” as well as more fantastical franchises such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter.” MacLennan said both genres are grouped together in literary circles under the name “speculative fiction,” and they’re paired together when searching for a movie to watch on a streaming service like MAX.

THE FIRM

The architect selection process started after the purchase of the Main Avenue SW building was completed earlier this year.

Applications were received from firms throughout the United States as well as Canada. Hickok Cole’s past projects include the International Spy Museum, National Geographic Pavilion and the headquarters of National Public Radio.

“It was an incredibly difficult process for us,” Reed said. “We formed a committee to review applications, ended up narrowing it down to our top four firms, and all of the top four were extremely qualified.

“Hickok has just done such impressive work. They’ve obviously worked with museum collections and museum buildings. They have a full team of people who are very capable and competent doing this work. They speak the language, so to speak. For all of our committee members, it was a unanimous decision that they were the ones to lead this project forward.”

Mark Ramirez, managing director of Hickok Cole, said the project appealed to him on multiple levels.

“I’m a sci-fi nerd,” he said. “I grew up watching sci-fi and reading sci-fi and being involved with sci-fi. All of my friends had a similar interest. When this opportunity came about, for me and one of my other colleagues in the office, it was very close to home. In a lot of respects, it was a passion project.

“From a firm standpoint, we love good stories, right? We love architecture that can tell good stories, and when we saw this project, we started doing our homework on it, doing research. We thought the storytelling component could be really powerful, whether it’s storytelling about sci-fi or storytelling about Warren or storytelling about John. All of these things were really exciting for us.”

THE NEXT STEPS

Representatives from Hickok Cole will make their first visit to Warren later this month to tour and photograph the building, as well as explore the surrounding area and the city as a whole.

“Part of the question is, how much do we want the town’s history to affect the building? There’s a story there, right? So should the building be against that or reflect that in some way? I don’t know,” Ramirez said. “So that’s one of the things we’ll do, and we certainly want to go and look at the artifacts, the props … I understand that a lot of them are pretty big and heavy, so I think understanding that physicality is important to us.”

With the name chosen, design work is underway on a museum logo, which is one of the final elements needed to create a package to present to potential donors for the museum, which could cost $20 million to complete the initial phase.

TCHS staff and volunteers continue to catalog the collection and try to determine the resume for the individual pieces. Most of the props appeared in multiple films, television series and commercials — in some cases hundreds of different projects — and many of those records were lost due to a faulty computer program.

That research has led to some surprises and some interesting sources for help.

MacLennan said he is rewatching the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” and realized several of the props were used on that show, particularly in the home and office of Barney Stinson, the character played by Neil Patrick Harris.

Many of the projects that featured Zabrucky’s work have passionate fan bases, and those fans also have reached out to the historical society and provided assistance.

“There’s a ‘Star Trek’ group that put together a list of all the props of Modern Props that were in ‘Next Generation’ episodes,” Reed said. “The ‘Knight Rider’ group came to Warren and met with us to look at the props that were in ‘Knight Rider’ and have been extremely helpful throughout this process.

“It’s been awesome to see how much the fans already know about some of this stuff. It feels sort of validating to us too, that they’re important and people want to see this stuff.”