Category Archives: Uncategorized

German Village Pride Parade Float

HDC employee Cathie Senter is leading the charge and working late with her crew to get the first-ever German Village float ready for the June 16 parade! Click here for the article. Below are photos from the parade:


View of the float getting ready for the parade.


View of the float in the parade.


Neil and Shiloh in full costume.


Cathie with a COA granted by Nancy Kotting.


Fall 2017

HDC Welcomes Cathie Senter!

Cathie worked with HDC on the Woodward Opera House in 2007, where she assessed the condition of the wooden windows and prepared drawings and specifications for their repair. Cathie noticed that the second floor windows were originally 6-over-6, but the muntins had been cut out and they were reglazed as 1-over-1 windows. Because of the alteration, we were able to replace the windows with new insulated 6-over-6 windows that matched the other multi-pane windows on the building. In 2011, we worked with Cathie on implementing the first phase of the Historic Structure Report she had prepared for Five Oaks Historic Home in Massillon. After 7 years teaching at the Building Preservation & Restoration program at Belmont College in St. Clairsville, Cathie was ready to get back into designing and managing projects. When she contacted HDC, we snapped her up immediately! While moving to Columbus from Wheeling in late summer, we had her work on projects in nearby Belmont and Noble Counties, and she also conducted assessments of historic stone buildings at the St. Louis Arsenal.

HDC Receives Praise for Eielson Air Force Base Documentation


Cover sheet with maps and front elevation

Floor plan and building section sheet

The final version of the Level I HABS Documentation of Building 1190 at Eielson Air Force Base was reviewed and approved in July 2017 by Ms. Sylvia Elliott, Architectural Historian with Alaska’s Review & Compliance Office of History & Archaeology, who commented that “It was an excellent report.” The MOA required that the documentation drawings include floor plan, section, and the front and side elevations. However, HDC thought a drawing of the side elevation would not convey any more information than a photograph, and focused on adding a plan of a B-29 aircraft, for which the hangar was designed.

Click here for a copy of the final report: Bldg1190 HABS Report Final

Indian Mound Recreation Center Getting Ready to Bid


REVIT rendering of the proposed Indian Mound Recreation Center

HDC’s first major project with the City of Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks is the design of the new Indian Mound Recreation Center to replace an existing one constructed in 1970. The existing rec center was built during the energy crisis and has low ceilings and no windows, which is a major complaint by the staff. As the design progressed with multiple neighborhood meetings, it became clear that the new building would be larger than the $7 million budget. This prompted HDC Project Architect Brad Curtis to recommend that the City retain the gym from the 1970 building, which is still in good condition, and put storage and other less public functions into the existing building, thereby shrinking the size of the addition and meeting the budget. The project is scheduled to bid at the end of December.

HDC President Visits Taiwan and Japan


Taiwan’s Pacific coast on the one sunny day of the trip

Gassho (praying hands) thatch roof buildings in the Shokawa Valley, Japan

HDC President Charissa W. Durst spent 14 days in October accompanying her mother on an overseas trip. Charissa’s uncle had arranged a college reunion trip to Japan, but was two people short of getting a group rate, so her mom volunteered the last two people. Since her uncle’s college is in Taiwan, the group trip originated and ended in Taiwan. Charissa’s last trip to Taiwan was in 1983 when she attended a summer language school with her brother. During the last week of that 2-month trip the class toured Taiwan but was unable to make it to the east coast since monsoons washed out the road. The rainy season typically ends at the end of September and October is normally sunny and dry. Unfortunately, global warming extended typhoon season well into October this year and it pretty much rained every day in Taiwan and Japan. They made it to the east coast of Taiwan, but were unable to access the national parks due to dangerous road conditions from the constant rain.

Donut Gets Marooned!

Donut the Beagle made multiple trips to Prairie Oaks Metro Park this summer, and she frolicked in Big Darby Creek a record number of times. During one trip after a heavy rain, Big Darby Creek was higher than normal and the usual center islands were underwater. Donut had to make do (unhappily) with a rock.


HDC says Goodbye to Office Manager Mej Stokes

HDC’s office manager for the past 11 years passed away on August 7 after a long illness. Since 2006, Mej took care of bookkeeping, human resources issues, filing, and just about anything and everything to support the office. Mej will be fondly remembered by current and former coworkers for listening to our personal and office issues, bringing in home-made treats or getting the best caterers for office events, remembering everyone’s birthday, and giving Donut a morning treat. We will all miss her, and Donut will especially miss napping under Mej’s long skirts during the winter months.


Hardlines Design Company President on Women’s Radio Network

(originally posted by Andy Sewell on October 2, 2014)

Women’s Radio Network (www.wrnw1.com) is an online broadcasting company dedicated to giving female professionals a voice online. Women’s Radio Network provides women with an avenue for communicating their professional knowledge to a wider audience and with a forum for networking with other professionals. On September 23, Hardlines Design Company owner and President, Charissa Durst, was interviewed by Lisa Singer for Ms. Singer’s program Open Forum. In this eight minute interview, Charissa discusses how her interest in both history and architecture led to the creation of HDC, how she blends the two disciplines in her work, and what it takes to become an architect.

Click here for Charissa Durst Interview on Open Forum


The 2012 American Cultural Resources Association Conference: Takeaways

(by Anne Lee, originally posted October 11, 2012)

I recently attended the American Cultural Resources Association’s (ACRA) annual conference in Seattle, held September 6-8 – three days packed with educational sessions full of useful information. I learned that I can take a lot of notes very quickly – which is good since my brain has a limited capacity for remembering all the facts and tips I learned during the conference! If you are in the field of cultural resources management, attending an ACRA conference is a must.

Workshops and sessions fell into one of three topical groups: the Business of Business, Developments in the Technical Aspects of Cultural Resources Management, and Trade Association topics. For a technical specialist like myself, the topics covered in the business of business sessions were those most outside my comfort zone, and the ones I found the most thought provoking. Here are some of the highlights of the business sessions I attended, as well as a few of the useful tips and reminders I came away with:

  • Workshop: What Wins and Why? – The Art and Science of Winning Proposals. Presented by Joanmarie Eggert, LG, CPSM, Pacific Northwest Marketing Manager, Kennedy/Jenks
    • Highlight: Being introduced to how the concept of “bug dust” can be applied to proposals. While the term “bug dust” refers to the very fine dust created from the boring of a mining machine, the concept as applied to your proposal efforts refers to those proposal elements that have little influence on the award selection committee, which are ones that you should pay as much attention to as miners do to “bug dust” – very little, in comparison to the big things that matter.
    • Useful tips and reminders:
      • Do internal proposal debriefings to improve the process on future endeavors.
      • Do quality control reviews of proposals – for content and appearance.
      • Clients care about their project, not what we as consultants do, so focus your proposal content on the project you are going after.
      • Questions to keep in mind as you develop proposal content: Why do you want THIS project? What value do you bring to the project?
      • Don’t “we we” on the client – Emphasize the client and the project, not your firm ( “You,” not “We”).
      • Debriefings for winning proposals may be more useful than debriefings for losing proposals in identifying what to focus on in future proposals.
  • Workshop: Business Development – Uncovered/Proven Methods and Tools for Successful Client Development. Presented by Jon Davies, Vice President and Director of Client Services at BHC Consultants, LLC, and Traci Nolan, CPSM, Business Development Manager at GeoDesign, Inc.
    • Highlights: Recommendation to look up Ford Harding’s Rainmaking series.
    • Useful tips and reminders:
      • Learning the difference between marketing and business development
      • Assign people to business development that WANT to do it; your business development efforts will fail if the people assigned to carry them out have no interest in them.
      • Tailor business development efforts to a person’s style
      • Every employee plays a part in the business development cycle – you just have to figure out what someone is good at and utilize them in that aspect of your business development strategy.
      • Remember – business development is a numbers game – if you want more clients, make more contacts.
      • Clients are people just like you.
      • In a face-to-face meeting, your job is to listen.
      • Social media is good for recruiting employees and getting your name out there, but is unlikely to land you a job. Relationships win you jobs.
  • Marketing: Business Development Live! – 3, 2, 1 and ACTION – are you ready?Presentation consisted of three real life marketing professionals meeting with Scott Williams, Manager of the Cultural Resources Program at the Washington Department of Transportation, feedback from the potential client, and a Q&A session.
    • Highlight:
      • Seeing Kenda Salisbury’s brilliant portrayal of a really bad business development professional acting inappropriately during the first meeting with a potential client.
      • Useful tips and reminders:
        • Client relationships drive the professional service industry.
        • Don’t worry about bothering a potential client – pick up the phone and call. The person on the other end can choose not to take the call.
        • Make sure multiple people in a firm have contact with a client so you don’t lose contact with the client if a staff member leaves your firm. Vice versa, make sure you have contact with multiple people in a client’s firm so you don’t lose the client if your only contact gets a job elsewhere.
        •  Do not send literature to private clients. Instead, identify common clients and meet with the private firm to discuss how your company can help the private client win a project with mutual clients.
    • Marketing: It’s What You Don’t Say That Counts – How to Project Your Best Non-Verbal Self. Presented by Kenda Salisbury, CPSM, Director of Marketing at Historical Research Associates, Inc.
      • Highlight: Experiencing the limp handshake…
      • Useful tips and reminders:
        • Humans communicate in all kinds of ways that are unspoken and being aware of what those non-verbal cues mean will help you be more successful at business development.
    • Management: Strategies to Address Critical Leadership and Ownership Challenges. Presented by Ed Edelstein
      • Highlight: Definition of a leader as the person who is most contagious, whether positive or negative.
      • Useful tips and reminders:
        • There is a difference between explicit and implicit drivers in a company.
        • Company culture is heavily influenced by the implicit drivers of the leaders within a company.
        • You can become a “positive contagion” – your attitude is your choice.
    • Finance and Accounting: Key Financial Indicators – Building a Performance Dashboard. Presented by David James, CPA, CMA, Clark Nuber P.S.
      • Useful tips and reminders:
        • There is more to understanding a company’s financial health than accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the dollar amount of contracts awarded.
        • Hire a professional to calculate the benchmarks and interpret them for you.

Bill Faciane: 15 years of Service at Hardlines Design Company

(by Charissa Durst, originally posted on October 3, 2012)

When facilities planner and architectural engineer Bill Faciane first started work at Hardlines Design Company in 1997, he assured me he would work on anything we needed, except he would not pick out any colors. Bill came to us with a pretty impressive range of experience (Navy builder, construction superintendant, cost estimator, and facilities planner), so we found plenty of things for him to work on, including construction management, roof repair and replacement, interior renovations, and work on exterior building envelopes (To date, we’ve never had to ask him to pick out colors). A few years later, Bill told me he went to boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes and swore he’d never go back. Well, that’s one promise I had to make him break multiple times, since we’ve had several projects there since 1998.

Bill Faciane, doing his thing

Bill also told me that when he worked at the City of Hampton as a facilities planner, he and his coworkers would pass around a Mr. Potato Head figure to whoever was the most ornery employee that month; Bill was proud to be its guardian numerous times. In honor of Bill’s 15th anniversary with HDC, we presented him with a gilded version of the legendary figure in honor of 15 ornery years and the hope of many more to come!


Congratulations to the 2012 Recchie Award Winners!

(by Andy Sewell, originally posted October 1, 2012 )

Hardlines Design Company would like to congratulate our friends at Schooley Caldwell Associates and Burgess & Niple, who were on the teams that jointly won the 2012 James B. Recchie Award on Thursday, September 27th. “A River Runs Through It” could easily describe the projects that won this year: the Scioto Mile project (project team member: Schooley Caldwell Associates), and the Scioto River Bridges project (project team member: Burgess & Niple).

A full list of Columbus Landmarks award winners for 2012 can be found here.


Columbus Landmarks’ 2012 Annual Design & Preservation Awards Tonight!

(by Andy Sewell, originally posted September 27, 2012)

It’s that time of year again, when Columbus Landmarks presents the annual Design & Preservation Awards. Our friends at Schooley Caldwell Associates and at Burgess & Niple are nominees for the James B. Recchie Design Award honoring excellence in urban design this year.

The event is being held at the historic Lincoln Theatre in downtown Columbus, one of our landmark projects and coincidentally (or not), the project for which we won the 2011 Recchie Design Award. Come and rub shoulders with Columbus’ best design professionals! (Hey, do you really need an excuse to take in the gorgeous Egyptian Revival restoration?)

Lincoln Theatre interior, as viewed from the stage.

Good luck to all the nominees!


Heritage Tourism, Hardlines Design style!

(by Charissa Durst, originally posted on September 7, 2012)

In the past two months, my husband Don and I managed to take a couple of weekend days off and explore the sites at the Dayton Aviation National Historical Park. Don has a National Park Service passport book and is obsessed with getting as many stamps as possible. Dayton is an easy day trip and good for five passport stamps.

On a Saturday in late June, we drove to Dayton and stopped at the Wright Brother’s Memorial near Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. HDC actually worked on a project here in 2008-2009 to stabilize the archaeological mounds that ring the edge of the memorial site The memorial features a visitor center, memorial obelisk, and an overlook to Huffman Dam and the edge of Huffman Prairie Flying Field, where the Wilbur and Orville Wright perfected their flying machine in the early 1900s.

While at the visitor center, we picked up brochures for other area attractions and learned that if you visited seven of twelve aviation-related sites, you receive a free “Wilbear Wright” teddy bear, complete with goggles, scarf, and leather jacket. The bear looked really cute, so I was determined to get one!

The Wright Brothers Memorial provided one of the seven stamps. Next, we drove through downtown Dayton to the Wright Cycle Company complex, which consists of the shop operated by the Wright Brother and the Hoover Block, out of which the Wright Brothers operated a printing company. We received our second stamp at this location.

Next, we drove a few blocks further for our third stamp and a quick look at the Paul Dunbar House, jointly operated with the Ohio Historical Society. Paul Dunbar was a nationally-acclaimed African American poet who was also a friend and colleague of the Wright Brothers and their printing company. HDC did a study of Dunbar’s namesake theatre in Wichita, Kansas.

Paul Dunbar House in Dayton, Ohio

Our fourth stop was Carillon Historical Park, home of the 1905 Wright Flyer III. This was originally intended to be a quick stop to see the flyer and get a stamp, but on that particular Saturday the park was hosting a model train show. If there’s one thing my husband likes to do besides look at airplanes, it’s look at trains. So, we ended up staying at Carillon for the rest of the day, leaving me three stamps short of bringing the Wilbear home.

View of a Section of an N scale model railroad

So, on a weekend in early July, Don and I drove back to Dayton and headed south to see a working version of the Wright Model B Flyer and obtain our fifth stamp. Then, we headed back toward the National Museum of the United States Air Force for the sixth and seventh stamps (a separate one was issued for the Aviation Hall of Fame).

View of the Wright Model B Flyer

The Air Force Museum was packed, and trips to the hangars on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base were sold out earlier in the morning. Don and I had visited these once before, but not since they expanded into a third hangar bay. Oh well, maybe next time. Instead, we went to the newest section of the museum that we had not yet visited, which contained missiles and aircraft associated with the Southeast Asia and Cold War missions.

View of Cold War Gallery from the missile balcony

The missiles were displayed in their own two-story silo-like wing, arranged in a circle so the space resembled a columned temple. HDC had recently completed a project on the Nike Missile Battery in Cleveland, so I was actively looking for one. But, the museum did not have one of these missiles on display at this time.

View of missile display

Don and I also remembered with some amusement the advertisements plastering the billboards all over Dayton supporting either Lockheed’s YF-22 or Northrop’s YF-23 prototypes, one of which was due to be selected in April 1991 as the Air Force’s new advanced tactical fighter to replace the aging fleet of F-15 and F-16 aircraft. The YF-22 ultimately won that competition and one of the productions models was on display.

F-22 Raptor

In the Cold War gallery, my eye fell immediately on the slick black shape of the F-117 Stealth Fighter. When Don and I were working on the HAER documentation of Area B in 1992, we got a phone call from the base historian to get out to the old runway to watch a plane landing. We actually witnessed this fighter land on the Area B runway on its way to being curated at the museum. We were able to walk around the plane after it landed, but could not get closer than 10 feet while and armed guard stood on duty because its avionics were still intact. But, it’s pretty cool to be able to point to that plane and know that I saw it fly in and land 20 years ago.

F-117 Stealth Fighter

But what about the Wilbear? Don wasn’t happy about it, but I made him drive all the way back into Dayton to pick one up at the Wright Cycle Company complex rather than send for it by mail. But, the Wilbear is really cute and well worth the effort it took to get the seven stamps!

Wilbear with one of Don’s biplane models.


How Fast Can You Do That Cultural Resources Survey?

(originally posted January 27, 2012)

Four things a client can do to speed up a survey before the contract is signed

Quite often, when planning their cultural resources surveys (typically for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act), our clients ask us, “How soon can you finish your survey?!” We’re always eager to start a project as soon as possible, of course, and the length of time it takes to reach the finish line depends on a number of factors. Some are pretty much fixed (like how long it takes to dig an archaeological test pit or complete a building inventory form), and weather can always help or hinder, but many other factors that affect the schedule are well within human control. With a little foresight and planning, that is.

Clients and consultants should of course choose the correct survey method, or consider alternatives that avoid areas that are likely to have archaeological sites or historic buildings.

But before the contract is even signed, clients can accelerate the process by thinking ahead and following these common-sense tips:

  • Before you ask a consultant to provide a proposal, make sure you have initiated consultation with your State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and know exactly what type of cultural resources services are being requested.
  • At the time you are selecting a consultant, make sure that your contracting department is prepared to initiate and execute a contract.
  • Before the contract is signed, have plans in place to stake the survey area or geo-reference your project footprint, so that as soon as the contract is signed, you can send the information to the consultant.
  • Before the contract is signed, prepare a letter to all of the property owners notifying them that survey crews will be on their land within a specified time period. As soon as the contract is signed, send the letters. Always give your consultants copies of this letter so that the survey crew has something to show the property owners to justify their presence on the property. And…your consultant will love you if your letter reminds the property owners to restrain aggressive pets and livestock (Yes, we’ve been threatened by dogs foaming at the mouth, flocks of nasty geese, at least one menacing ram, and numerous territorial bulls and excitable horses!)
So remember, there’s a lot of things that you can do, both large and small, to help speed up that survey!