By Todd Nagy, Senior Architect
In the architectural profession, there are two types of architects: design-oriented architects and technical-oriented architects. Throughout college and nearly twenty years of working in the profession, I’ve always gravitated towards the technical side. I found it very challenging to take the conceptual designs created by our design team and come up with the game plan for making projects come to fruition. As a technical architect, you are always thinking of ways to construct a building, while making sure all of the requirements set forth in the building code are met.
As a young intern, I was very intimated by the architectural building code. In architecture school, we were never taught how to navigate it. It wasn’t until after working several years in the profession where I was faced with a situation that forced me to pull up my bootstraps and dive into the code book to find the supportive information needed to counter the non-compliance items the plans examiner had indicated in their plan review. After going through this memorable experience, and the years that followed, I became more comfortable and keen to learn as much about the code as possible.
While working at Herschman Architects (now Onyx Creative), from 1998-2008, Todd worked as a project architect on numerous hhgregg retail stores.
Todd had the opportunity to work on St. John High School Gymnasium, a private, Catholic K-12 school in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 2014-2015.
In 2016, a unique opportunity presented itself that would require me to take a detour from my normal routine as an architect and pursue a job opportunity to expand my building code knowledge. An opening was posted in Ashtabula County for a new Chief Building Official (CBO). Being from this area, as well as meeting the requirements for this position, I was offered the position. It was a hard decision to leave a firm that was family, but in order to grow professionally, I took a leap of faith to venture down unfamiliar roads.
It wasn’t too long after making this decision that I was walking into the building department as the new CBO. For the next three years, I spent learning how to efficiently manage the department operations, while working towards obtaining the certifications required by the Ohio Board of Building Standard. While studying for these certification exams, I gained a better understanding of all of the other codes such as the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical codes. I also learned the legal, as well as ethical aspects of the Ohio Revised Code relative to the building code.
Throughout my time as the CBO, I had many great experiences that developed my code knowledge. However, during this time away from the architectural profession, I began to realize how much I missed being an architect. I spent three years improving the department operation as well as regaining the trust of the building community, but deep down I knew I wanted to practice architecture again. While I was pondering the idea to make the shift back to the private sector, a rare opportunity that I was not expecting presented itself. When I was beginning to search for a new job, a senior architect position opened up at Onyx Creative in 2019. The sun and the moon must have been in perfect alignment and in what seemed like a blink of an eye, I was back home at the firm and family I had to leave just three years earlier.
Adam Beneke (left) and Todd Nagy (right) on their first day in April 2019.
Now that I have settled into my new position here at Onyx, I am fortunate to assist my colleagues in finding solutions to code-related issues. In my prior term at HA/Onyx, I was told numerous times by many contractors, developers, and plans examiners about the quality projects this firm produces. This is something I like to reinforce among our staff, to take pride in the work they produce. Our group of senior architects continues to mentor all staff and build the tools and resources to maintain the exceptional reputation of Onyx Creative.
