Solutions Architecture Honored as NJASBO's Associate Business Member Partner of the Year

The Associate Business Member Partner of the Year is Solutions Architecture of Verona, New Jersey. NJASBO presented the award to Architectural Principal Frank A. Messineo, AIA, at the NJASBO [New Jersey Association of School Business Officials] annual conference.

“Solutions Architecture is honored to be named the 2018 Associate Business Member Partner of the Year,” said Messineo. “We are pleased to be included in a long list of talented and qualified ABMs elected before us.” Messineo also said that having been an Associate Business Member for the last 20+ years “has been integral to our establishing many long and cherished relationships with districts and individuals that we’ve had the good fortune to be introduced to. We are proud to have developed relationships with clients, consultants and agencies that have spanned decades.”

Messineo and Solutions Architecture were nominated by David DiPisa, Business Administrator, and Christopher M. Tully, Ed.D., Superintendent, Bergenfield Public Schools. DiPisa said that as the architect of record for the district, Messineo “has gone above and beyond to not only build schools, but to school adults and children in the real purpose of education – developing outstanding citizens.”

In nominating Messineo and Solutions Architecture, DiPisa said, “Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, ‘Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.’ When interpreting our time, Frank… recognized that we were missing a little kindness, character, and citizenship.”

According to Tully, “Solutions Architecture has partnered to improve the education of our students by not only addressing school building infrastructure, but by building the character and citizenship of all who inhabit our facilities.” He noted that Messineo “has taken extraordinary measures to collaborate with the Board of Education to develop and execute unlimited service and community learning opportunities for our students.” He also said that Messineo “reminded us daily that the most important lessons we teach begin with kindness and compassion.”

DiPisa noted that for the last five years, Messineo and Solutions Architecture had participated in an event with the BOE to prepare and serve food to the homeless. Messineo provided 75 twenty-pound turkeys, 20 hams, and 130 boxes of stuffing. But according to Tully, Messineo didn’t just donate food or money, but rather offered his personal leadership and gave “countless hours of his time standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our staff and students.”

DiPisa also said that Messineo participates in the AIA Newark Suburban/NJ and the Community Foodbank of New Jersey’s CANstruction Program. Architects compete by designing structures out of canned goods and when the structures have been judged, they donate the cans to the Community Foodbank of New Jersey. “Frank’s excellence,” said DiPisa, “led to his company being named the 2012 Award Winner for Structural Ingenuity and People’s Choice.” He said the company was the 2013 and 2014 Award Winner for Best Meal.

DiPisa noted that Messineo also donates time to a host of other organizations as well, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, Fairfield Unico, Caldwell University’s Center for Autism, and Advocates for Children in New Jersey, among many others. Additionally, Tully noted that Messineo contributes to the Italian American Service Organization, Salvation Army, Ford Sponsorships, the Jannarone Memorial Scholarship Outing, Fairfield Knights of Columbus, New Milford Education Foundation, Midland Park Education Foundation, Seton Hall Pirate Blue Foundation, and the Take a Swing at MS Annual Golf Outing.

“Frank’s parents instilled in him the idea that you always give back to the community,” explained Tully. “We know these intimate details about Frank and his history because that is how close of a partner he has become to our school district.”

Tully told this story. “After working with Frank Messineo serving food at a homeless shelter, one student turned to me and said, ‘I have never felt this good in my whole life.’ Is there a better testament? He may not realize it, but from Frank giving so generously of his time, our students have developed an outstanding sense of citizenship and character. Ben Franklin once wrote, ‘Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will learn.”

David DiPisa summed it up well. “One of our nation’s most beloved poets wrote, ‘Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’ This summarizes the life and contributions of Frank Messineo of Solutions Architecture. He chose kindness and is making all the difference as a role model of outstanding citizenship for the students of New Jersey!”