Staff photo / Andy Gray From left, Elba Morales, design director with architecture firm Hickok Cole, talks while Pam Schwartz, managing director of exhibit design firm Thinc Design, listens during one of six visioning sessions for the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts last week at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.

WARREN — The architecture and exhibit design firms that will make the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts a reality got their first in-person look at what they have to work with and some guidance from the community.

Mark Ramirez, managing director, and Elba Morales, design director, of Washington, D.C.-based architecture firm Hickok Cole came to Warren last week along with three people from New York City-based firm Thinc Design — Pam Schwartz, managing director; Chris Muller, senior exhibit designer; and Melanie Feaster, design and data specialist.

They toured the building at 410 Main Ave. SW that will be the site for the museum. They visited Medici Museum of Art in Howland, where a portion of the collection that Warren native and Modern Props co-founder John Zabrucky donated to the Trumbull County Historical Society is on display. They traveled to the warehouse where the rest of the collection is being stored.

“They were like kids,” said Ryan MacLennan, TCHS director of education and outreach. “(At the warehouse), they wanted to investigate how these things worked, what the lights did, what those buttons did. Then once they went to Medici, they sort of understood exactly what this could be.”

The firms also held six “visioning sessions” at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library where they could gather input from government officials, business and community leaders, TCHS staff, board members and sci-fi committee members and other interested parties that could shape how the architects and designers move forward.

TCHS Executive Director Meghan Reed said, “The main goal was to start developing the creative process for how the museum is going to look. The architect firm will be responsible for primarily the exterior of the building but also some functions inside, and the exhibit design firm will be working very hand in hand with the architects to develop the experience that visitors have when they go through the space.

“This was the first time that what I’m calling the creative team had a chance to get together and start those conversations, and it is absolutely crucial for us that the community has a say in what that looks like. We were extremely happy to welcome community members, businesses, organizations, into that conversation, to make sure that those that will be impacted by the museum will have the ability to participate in this process and give very real direct feedback for the direction we’re going.”

The two firms will work both apart and in tandem to shape the look of the museum inside and out.

Schwartz told one session of participants, “It’s a very cohesive thing. They don’t go away in a dark room and do their thing and then we go away. … It’s just constantly weaving the threads tighter and tighter and tighter to the possibilities of what the actual fabric of the building says.”

Some are aesthetic considerations, others are practical, such as the weight of some of the props influencing where and how they can be displayed.

Morales added, “The first step is figuring out what are those guiding principles, what are those goals and aspirations that we have to have. What is the guiding light? … Those things are what makes the rest of this possible.”

To help fund this phase of the project, TCHS has created the Genesis Club, a founders circle for the museum with a goal of attracting 200 donors each giving at least $5,000.

“Everybody says that the first million dollars is the hardest to raise, and we want to prove local support before we go statewide and then, of course, to national fundraising,” Reed said. “For those giving $20,000 or more over the course of five years, we’ll have special recognition at the museum. (It) makes sure that we can get through this first phase of design and development, so that we can start breaking ground and physically building out the museum.”

Information on the Genesis Club is available by emailing director@trumbullcountyhistory.org or calling 330-394-4653.

One encouraging sign for Reed and MacLennan from the visioning sessions was that many participants saw the sci-fi museum project as a linchpin for the development of the greater Warren downtown area.

“Whether it’s the (Mahoning) River and the development that we’re seeing downtown through local business, through the Trumbull Family Fitness (project), the Peninsula Project, any one of these projects can’t create a fully imagined image of Warren, but all of us together can be a part of that movement,” Reed said. “That’s one of the things we’re most excited about here.”

MacLennan added, “So much positive, good momentum has happened downtown. This project is another brick, another step in that direction, and we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of that process.”