Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Patrick Orsagos, Gene Puskar and Paul Vernon delivered an all-formats package weaving together the personal, political and economic implications of a planned $20 billion Intel semiconductor manufacturing complex in rural Johnstown, Ohio, where homes are being demolished to make way for the project that will bring jobs to the “Silicon Heartland” and presumably reduce a shortage in manufacturing capacity for computer chips.
Knowing that customers look to the AP for this kind of business enterprise story, the journalists set out to illustrate the changing landscape around the project, literally and figuratively. Cross-format brainstorming and coordination developed from an initial conversation about how to convey the impact of the two processor plants expected to open in 2025 on the nearly 1,000-acre site.
Land in Johnstown, Ohio, where Intel plans to build two new processor plants, is shown in a June 9, 2022 aerial photo. The houses on the left are slated for demolition to make way for the $20 billion “Silicon Heartland” project spanning nearly 1,000 acres. Construction is expected to begin in 2022, with production coming online at the end of 2025.
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
Dale Smith pauses as he moves out of his home of 30 years on the future site of a $20 billion Intel semiconductor manufacturing complex, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
The rubble of a leveled home lies on land where a $20 billion Intel processor plant is to be built in Johnstown, Ohio, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
New Albany, Ohio, mayor Sloan Spalding speaks with a reporter outside New Albany Village Hall in New Albany, Ohio, June 9, 2022. Spalding understands the loss that people are experiencing, especially those leaving homes of decades or more, but Ohio could be transformed by the Intel’s presence, he said.
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
Tiffany Hollis, center, owner of the Dashing Diner Uptown, in Johnstown, Ohio, works the lunchtime rush, June 9, 2022. Hollis understands the opportunity the Intel project offers, but is torn by its impact on her extended family, and fears that her business will be overrun by chain restaurants. “When your heart is with a place — we don’t want it to happen,” she said. “Like you want it to happen, but just not in your backyard.”
AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar
During a June 20, 2022 interview, Tiffany Hollis, left, and grandmother Tressie Corsi talk about giving up the house Corsi has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972, making way for an Intel semiconductor manufacturing plant. The 85-year-old family matriarch has lived in a house on seven acres of that land since she and her late husband built a house there 50 years ago, raising four children and welcoming multiple generations.
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
On camera during a June 20, 2022 AP interview, Tressie Corsi talks about giving up the house she has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972, making way for an Intel manufacturing plant. President Joe Biden, during March’s State of the Union speech, called the site “1,000 empty acres of land.” That didn’t sit well with Corsi. “You can see it’s not vacant land,” Corsi said from her porch.
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
During a June 20, 2022 interview, Tressie Corsi talks about giving up the house she has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972, making way for an Intel manufacturing plant.
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
During a June 20, 2022 interview, Paul Corsi Jr., left, his mother Tressie Corsi and Stacey Walker, the girlfriend of Corsi’s great-grandson Andrew, survey a boulder that has become a family landmark outside the house Tressie Corsi has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972. The boulder that grandchildren once raced to and from is being relocated to Tressie’s new home as she leaves her home of 50 years to make way for a $20 billion Intel semiconductor manufacturing complex.
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
On June 20, 2022, Tony Kelly, the grandson of Tressie Corsi, tapes off the ornamental cherry tree his late grandfather gave to his grandmother, outside the house she has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972. The tree is destined for Corsi’s new home as she relocates to make way for an Intel semiconductor manufacturing plant that will occupy nearly 1,000 acres.
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
During a June 20, 2022 interview, Tressie Corsi talks about giving up the house she has owned in Johnstown, Ohio, since 1972, making way for an Intel manufacturing plant. Corsi and more than 50 other homeowners on the Intel site aren’t being forcibly removed. Two holding companies working on behalf of Intel have spent millions on offers to homeowners, often well-above market rates. But for Corsi, money was never the issue. “It was the happiness that we had,” she said. “That’s what really hurts.”
AP Photo / Paul Vernon
Columbus reporter Andrew Welsh-Huggins and the team spoke with a local mayor, a representative for the project developer and residents. Pittsburgh-based photographer Gene Puskar provided visuals, including drone stills and video showing expanses of green fields and rural homes that will be cleared away to make room for Intel. Among the residents interviewed was diner owner Tiffany Hollis; Welsh-Huggins spent days building trust, eager to speak with members of her extended family who were moving away, their longtime “forever homes” to be leveled.
The result: a compelling interview at the home of Hollis’ grandmother, 85-year-old Tressie Corsi. The poignant story of the family’s multiple generations and their connection to the land and their homes, with video by Columbus video journalist Patrick Orsagos and stills by freelance photographer Paul Vernon, grounded the all-formats package in the lives of those most directly affected by the Intel project.