— A team of experienced architects will lend its expertise this week at meetings that may help shape the future of three historic Johnstown churches.

Final details have been announced for a three-day design workshop focused on St. Columba, Immaculate Conception and

SS. Casimir and Emerich, all of which closed last year as part of a merger of five Roman Catholic parishes in the Cambria City neighborhood.

Meetings will begin Thursday evening and run through Saturday afternoon. The public is invited to participate in all sessions.

The churches have sat vacant since last summer. Community leaders and volunteers don’t want to lose the buildings, which are ornate vestiges of the neighborhood’s rich ethnic history.

The idea for this week’s workshops is to bring residents, civic leaders, experts and others together for “brainstorming potential uses” for the structures, organizers said.

The schedule is as follows:

• The first session is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Heritage Discovery Center, 201 Sixth Ave. The meeting will provide an overview of the process and initial feedback.

• On Friday, tours of the churches will run from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Participants will meet at Immaculate Conception at Broad Street and Third Avenue.

• Also on Friday, a work session is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon at Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center, 411 Third Ave. Lunch will be provided.

• The final meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Bottle Works.

Organizers said potential functions for the church buildings may include the arts, social services or for-profit ventures.

Attendees also will examine “other successful adaptive use projects from around the country and consider the particular attributes of Cambria City and of each church,” officials said.

Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia nonprofit that specializes in church preservation and reuse, was hired through fundraising by the volunteer group Save Our Steeples and Johnstown Regional Partnership.

Other participants and supporters of the process include a steering committee, Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and Resurrection Parish – the new church formed in last year’s merger.

Johnstown Area Heritage Association also is participating.

Also, organizers have recruited architects from a variety of backgrounds to assist at this week’s meetings. They include:

• Carmine Carapella: A native of Italy who trained in Rome, he is a Pittsburgh architect who specializes in historic preservation, residential architecture and urban planning.

• Clive Copping: A project manager in architecture with TranSystems of Philadelphia. He has been a manager for restorations of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the main Capitol building in Harrisburg and church projects in Philadelphia and New York.

• Ryan Kolar: A Johnstown native with degrees in architecture and planning, he has completed projects in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Scotland.

• David O. Lose: President emeritus of Lose & Associates, a landscape-architecture, engineering, architecture and land-planning company in Nashville, Tenn.

• Ben Policicchio is director of architectural planning/design and safety officer at Johnstown’s Memorial Medical Center. He has won awards for projects including Central Park Commons in Johnstown and Noon-Collins Inn in Ebensburg.

• John Springer works at UpStreet Architects in Indiana, Pa. and is part-owner of InHouse Architects. He has more than 15 years of experience.

• Fred Watts is with Celli-Flynn Brennan Architects & Planners of Pittsburgh. He has more than 20 years of experience in areas including historic preservation.