Freeman Family Part of New Gym at The Village Network
WOOSTER – The Freeman family will once again have an impact on The Village Network’s Wooster campus. Involvement at this time will revolve, as it did in the past, on the gymnasium. “For 54 years it has been there,” said Dan Freeman, president of Freeman Building Systems. “What’s kind of fun for us is that my grandfather (Howard Z. Freeman) built it,” Dan Freeman said, “and now we’re going to tear it down and replace it.”
In his grandfather’s day, “it would have been designed by an architect.” Subsequently, his grandfather’s company, Freeman Construction, followed a design. “Today things are done a little differently,” he said, often using a process called design-build. “The design we’re using for the new gym” was done by Craig Sanders, “who does all of our design work,” Freeman said.
According to information provided by Tim Homan, TVN’s vice president of advancement, the 1964 building, which formerly housed Boys’ Village School and incorporates the gym — now being replaced — was built by Freeman Construction with a $100,000 gift from the Timken Foundation. “We’re just demolishing the gym (portion),” Homan said, adding, the new construction will be built on the same footprint as the old gym, which is past its lifespan and has a leaking roof.
However, Dan Freeman said, his company will use “new and current technology” for the structure. In other ways as well, the project is personal for Dan Freeman, who said, “I used to play basketball in that gym.” His eighth-grade football team from Franklin Township School in the Triway district played against a Boys’ Village eighth-grade team. The gym replacement will complete, with the exception of possibly building a barn for the equestrian program, a series of renovations and changes on the Boys’ Village campus since the administration was moved to a new headquarters on Noble Drive in Wooster, Homan said.
The 10,000 square feet of space vacated from that move to the former Technigraphics building has been revamped to support TVN’s integrated care, Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and collaborative problem-solving treatment models, said TVN’s CEO, Rich Graziano. “All of the renovations we have completed to date support these proven practices,” Graziano said. “The new gym completes the campus renovations and provides the final piece of our health and wellness strategies,” he said.
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Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at 330-264-1125, ext. 2230, or lhall@the-daily-record.com.