Ziti Returns to AKC Agility!
In August, Ziti ran in her first AKC agility trial since her back surgery in January 2024. She was entered in four events each day and was able to qualify in two on each day! Not bad for being out of practice. Her next two-day agility trial took place in Iowa at the National Beagle Specialty, where she earned four 1st place ribbons. She then successfully ran in two days of FastCAT events in Iowa. Ziti also had a great time hiking around in Iowa’s state parks.
Left: Ziti powers through the weave poles with Charissa urging her on. Right: Ziti poses with two of her ribbons.
This photo by Dean Lake of Ziti at the FastCAT event in Iowa just shows how happy she is to be running!
Mount Zion Black Cultural Center Phase 1 Nears Completion
After a very wet spring and early summer, dry weather in late summer allowed Wolf Creek Construction to complete most of the exterior excavation and waterproofing, start the elevator addition, and pour the main basement floor slab. The floor is an 8” thick mat slab with 12” thick areas under future column locations. The floor is also heavily reinforced and attached to the exterior walls so rising water will not be able to dislodge it. One of the workers commented we could park an airplane in the basement! Wolf Creek Construction has also been awarded Phase 2 to rehabilitate the rest of the building, which will start once Phase 1 is closed out.
Left: View of the mud pit in the basement in April. Center: Rebar and vapor barrier being laid in preparation for the new concrete floor slab. Right: The new basement floor in September.
New Storage Building at Fernwood State Forest
The Fernwood State Forest storage building is almost complete, just waiting on final inspections and cleaning. The building has four storage bays with overhead doors, one of which has overhead doors on both the front and rear walls to allow vehicles to pull into the building to be loaded and unloaded out of the weather. On the east side of the building is a rainwater harvesting system that stores water from downspout runoff in an underground tank for washing vehicles outside. The Foresters should be able to start moving materials and equipment into the building in the next few months.
Exterior and interior views of the new storage building, which is almost complete.
Ohio’s First Black Church Nearing Renovation Completion
The Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in South Point had some state grant money redirected to another project, so some items not essential to the occupancy permit had to be postponed. These included items such as the new wood floor, installing the original tin ceiling and the replacement pieces, new window and door casings, reinstalling the wood wall base, and interior painting. The exterior painted wood handicap ramp has also been swapped for a premanufactured aluminum ramp. The owners are hoping to raise enough private funds to finish the remaining work this year.
Left: View of the northeast corner of the church, which is still awaiting delivery of the new custom front doors. Right: Interior looking northwest toward the location of the new egress door, which will lead to the wheelchair ramp.
Hardlines Design Company Welcomes Luis Andujar
Luis Andujar earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture from Miami University in Ohio and spent the next 25 years working on higher education, retail, medical, and multi-family projects for public and private clients. When Luis decided to change jobs, a former coworker of his who is also a former employee at HDC recommended that he send his resume here. We decided to hire him and he started at the end of July, just in time to take over projects when our intern Clara Reed left for graduate school at the University of Virginia – Alexandria in August. Luis will also take over come construction administration duties as we currently have a bunch of projects under construction!
In early August, the office took a field trip to visit the Cedarville Opera House and Clifton Opera House and eat a farewell lunch for Clara and a welcome lunch for Luis at the Clifton Inn.
Left: HDC examining the incredible attic structure at the Cedarville Opera House. Right: Jennifer, Clara, Vivian, and Luis at the gazebo with the Clifton School in the background.
Ziti Cools Off in a Park and Runs in a Speedway Trial
It’s been too hot and humid in June and July for gardening outside. On July 4, we took Ziti to Prairie Oaks Metro Park and made her swim in the river for therapy and to cool off. The next weekend, Ziti ran all the events over two days in air conditioned comfort at a CPE Speedway trial. There are no weave poles or contacts she has to hit in Speedway, she just gets to run fast! A larger super fast border collie named Zing picked up most of the first-place ribbons in their size category, but Ziti managed to hold her own!
L: Ziti and Charissa cool off in a rock in Big Darby Creek at Prairie Oaks Metro Park on July 4. R: Ziti poses with all the ribbons she won over at the CPE Speedway trial at ARF.
What Do We Do With All This Water?
When Intel decided to build a plant in Ohio, one of the reasons is the abundance of water. Apparently, data centers keep getting built here for the same reason. But it you are working on an old building with a basement, all that water can be a liability! At The Gardner House, Steller Construction finished installing the underpinning, new concrete slab floor, and exterior perimeter drain when a torrential downpour saturated the site. Rain came down so fast that the drainage system couldn’t get water out fast enough to prevent it from entering the basement. One solution is to add a drainage mat on top of the waterproofing to keep water off the exterior wall and direct it down to the drain pipe.
L: New fluid-applied waterproofing membrane that will be augmented with a drainage mat against the wall. R: An exiting cistern filled with water that we hope can be made into a historical exhibit that the pubic can view.
At Fernwood State Forest, the foundation drilling team working with E. Mullins Construction hit water that required the use of steel caissons to stabilize the shafts walls before the concrete could be poured. As an option, the driller could have eliminated caissons and used a slurry product known as “construction mud” (amongst other colorful names) in the shafts to keep the walls stable as concrete was being poured.
L: The Fernwood State Forest storage building in April 2025 with concrete piers curing in wood formwork. R: In July 2025, the floor slab in place and building framing up and anchored to pier foundations.
And finally, at Mount Zion Black Cultural Center in Athens, which is known to have a high water table, the constant rain made basement soil excavation a mud pit and caused the water table to rise. On the assumption that wet weather would only be more extreme in the future, HDC worked with the contractor Wolf Creek Contracting LLC to raise the level of the basement floor and enclosed all sump pits in waterproofed concrete enclosures. The basement will still be usable space, but design changes eliminate floor finishes and keep drywall a few inches off the floor behind the vinyl baseboard to minimize water damage in the future.
L: Wolf Creek Contracting rigged up a conveyor system to remove mud and bricks from the basement. R: Water in the basement after another heavy rain slowed construction progress.
Northcoast Behavioral Health Starts Construction
After multiple years on hold for funding and more, the renovation of the Northcoast Behavioral Health Dietary Building started in June! The general contractor is Feghali Brothers LLC out of Canfield, Ohio. Initial work consists of interior demolition to remove built-in freezers and coolers, asbestos abatement, quarry tile removal, and some exterior siding/fascia removal. The finished project will provide additional office space, including a meeting room and break room, and expand the existing restrooms to accommodate additional office workers. The expanded restrooms will be fully accessible and one of the office workers will finally stop sharing space with the server/IT closet!
L: The floor under one of the removed coolers will be leveled and prepped to accept a new floor finish. R: Quarry tile marked for area to be removed.
Gallipolis Freight Station Museum
Kabil Associates is the lead firm on an ODOT-funded project to renovate a freight train into a meeting space for the Gallipolis Railroad Freight Station Museum. Hardlines Design Company is providing architectural and historic preservation consulting and Kramer Engineers is providing MEP services. The main architectural work is to finish the interior renovation of a passenger car to include an accessible restroom, catering kitchen, and a meeting room and to update the exterior painted finish. This passenger train once carried circus workers who lived in self-contained studios that had a kitchenette, bathroom, and fold-down bunk. One of the rooms is being converted into an accessible restroom and kitchen and the other will be restored back to its historic condition in the future. The project is expected to be bidding in late 2025!
L: The interior of the passenger car has already been partially gutted. R: One of the intact studio “apartments.”
HDC Starts Work on Another National Register Nomination
HDC has been commissioned to prepare a National Register Historic District Nomination of the Village of Glouster, Ohio, to support development and renovation of historic buildings downtown. The nomination is being supported by a Pipeline grant from the Ohio Department of Development. Most of the buildings lie north of the railroad tracks on each side of High Street, with the buildings on the west side backing up to Sunday Creek. The main industry in 19th century Glouster was coal mining the Sundar Creek seam. Supporting industries included brickmaking (the Wassall brick Company operated from 1895 to 1932) and the railroad line (Michigan & Kanawha) had a freight and passenger station in town.
