The 2012 American Cultural Resources Association Conference: Takeaways
(by Anne Lee, originally posted October 11, 2012)
Five Things to Keep in Mind About Historic Building Renovation
(by Charissa Durst, originally posted on October 4, 2012)
We often take for granted the history of a neighborhood. Where once stood an Art Deco office building, now sits a cookie-cutter strip mall. But what if an architect had taken the time to study the history behind the Art Deco building? How would they have gone about completing an historic building renovation that not only would house shops but could also have a positive impact on the neighborhood as a whole? By following a few guidelines, renovating a historical building doesn’t need to be the money pit many developers would have you believe.
Do your research. Understanding the history of a community will give you a huge advantage when beginning your restoration project. Just as architectural periods segue from one style to another, neighborhoods reinvent themselves over time. Through careful research, patterns will emerge that will help you tackle your project while maintaining the building’s integrity. Historically, research has always been a bit of a treasure hunt. Hours of library research often turned up scant details while other days you could immerse yourself in a building’s original plans. Luckily, the internet has opened up the world’s historical archives and sources such as Sanborn Fire Insurance maps collection give you an instant picture of a neighborhood’s character.
Review regulations. Every city has its own regulations on historical preservation. Taking the time to learn know your area’s regulations will definitely save you time, money and headaches. Submit plans early in the process; you might need the extra time to make design adjustments. Also, check the historical designation of the building you are restoring. Is it listed in the National Register of Historic Places or as a contributing structure to a historic district? Contact the state historic preservation office, the agency that oversees historic preservations, and ask if your project has any restrictions you’ll need to follow. Generally, historic renovations should follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for Rehabilitation (link to NPS site?). Finally, check if your property is located in an area subject to review by a local area commission, architectural commission, or historical commission. I sit on the German Village Historic Commission here in Columbus, and believe me, we are way more strict with buildings in our district than a property that is merely subject to state or federal regulations!
Secure funding. Historic building renovations can qualify for a variety of federal grant programs. These programs, which help offset the high cost of preservation projects, have various requirements so make sure you know your projects parameters and goals before applying. The Main Street Grant program assists historic downtown areas retain their tradition and character. Our company is currently working on a façade improvement project in the City of Xenia that was partially funded by a Main Street grant.
Rendering of proposed facade improvements in Xenia, Ohio
Federal historic tax credits and new market tax credits have been a source of funding for renovation projects since the 1980s. When coupled with state historic tax credits, a significant percentage of the project’s costs can be covered. Our Woodward Opera House project recently applied for federal and state tax credits, which allowed the project to expand from a $2.5 million “just fix-it” construction budget to an almost $15 million state-of-the-art performing arts center budget.
The Woodward Opera House in Mount Vernon, ca 1916
Reuse and recycle. Bringing modern conveniences and materials into your historical renovation can be a labor of love. By installing environmentally friendly products during your renovation, you can bring warmth and savings to your building. Reuse, restore or repurpose flooring you salvaged during demolition. Creating a ‘sustainable-use plan’ prior to construction will expedite the material recycling and help you organize the inventory for future use. If your goal is a sustainable project, consider obtaining LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. A project earns points for each sustainable criteria met. A total building renovation qualifies as a LEED New Construction project, which requires 40 points for basic certification, 50 for Silver, 60 for gold, and 80 for platinum. HDC is currently renovating a historic elementary school with the goal of achieving LEED for Schools Silver Certification.
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!
Going Green with Historic Building Renovation
(by Andy Sewell, originally posted September 27, 2012)
Undertaking an historical building renovation provides you with an opportunity to combine the authenticity of the old with the latest technologies and concepts in green building. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the sponsor for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), estimates that buildings account for 74 percent of the electricity used in the U.S. and 39 percent all energy usage.
The goal of the LEED program is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent, an ambitious commitment that’s only attainable on a one by one basis. Besides bringing an existing building into the 21st Century by using the latest building materials and techniques that increase its energy efficiency, rehabilitating an existing building saves raw materials and lowers landfill waste. Saving historic buildings also has an important social role by preserving the past for generations to come.
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.
Good Luck, Roy! Hardlines bids adieu to our senior historian
(by Andy Sewell, originally posted on July 17, 2012)
After fifteen years with Hardlines Design Company, senior historian Roy Hampton has retired. Roy’s tenure with Hardlines was marked by several career highlights, including National Register nominations for Rockefeller Park in Cleveland and Wright Field at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, numerous ICRMPs for the U.S. Navy, HAER documentation of the NASA Glenn Rocket Test Facility in Cleveland, and work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including the Ohio River Navigation Survey and documentations of several large dams.
We wish Roy (and Karly) the best of luck with whatever the future brings!
Why We Have Dogs at Hardlines Design Company
(by Anne Lee, originally posted on April 11, 2012)
A recent study on dogs in the workplace was published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management and subsequently reported on by the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17561272), who noted that “…access to dogs boosted morale and reduced stress levels, whether people had access to their own pets or other people’s.” At Hardlines Design Company, this doesn’t come as news to us!
Many people are pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised when they show up at our office and are greeted by the rather loud barks of a beagle. And, too, sometimes people can hear the beagle in the background when they call the office. People typically have one of two reactions when they realize that we have dogs in our office: (1) “Wow, it is SO cool that you have dogs at work!” or (2) a grimace and the unspoken look signifying “That’s a little strange for a professional office.”
So, why do we have dogs at our office? Well, a long time ago, Charissa (the owner of HDC) told me that one of the reasons she started her own business was that she wanted to be able to take her dog to work. So Charissa started her own business and started bringing her dog to work. First there was Bagle, a very mellow beagle by the time I started at HDC in 2002. A few years later, Bagle passed away, and Donut came along. Donut, also a beagle, is the opposite of Bagle—Donut is energetic, needy, very vociferous, and just a little skittish. Oh, and I think she has multiple personality disorder, but we don’t need to share that with her.
Bagle the Beagle: Our first office dog.
You do have to forgive Donut her foibles; she was found abandoned when she was only four weeks old, and we believe that many of her protective, and somewhat nervous tendencies, are the result of her very early life. During her next four weeks in the shelter, Donut acquired the nickname “Little Monster” because of her tendency to nip! Diligent training by Charissa, however, has resulted in a much calmer Donut. Rest assured, she does not snap unless you attempt to stick your hand in her food bowl or pick her up when she is stressed out. A few years ago, our Senior Historian Roy Hampton added Karly to the mix, a very quiet 5-year-old beagle, also rescued from the dog shelter. Most people don’t even realize that Karly is here; she is that unobtrusive.
To answer a subsidiary question I hear, yes, Donut’s barking can be distracting and a little shocking for those who are not prepared for it, but the counterbalance to that point is that the dogs add so much to the office environment. They are our mascots, our entertainment, our lunch companions, and our stress relievers. They greet us when we arrive, and they provide a warm and accepting presence when the day just isn’t going that well. Some say our office is “insane,” which may be true, but it is also humane, and that is, at least in part, a result of the great dogs who hang out with us all day.
3 Questions to Ask about Needing a Cultural Resources Survey
(by Andy Sewell, originally posted March 29, 2012)
Economic Impacts and Historic Preservation
(By Andy Sewell, originally posted March 15, 2012)
I Slept in a Wigwam
(by Maria Burkett, originally posted March 1, 2012)
Route 66 is a treasure trove of American mid-century vernacular architecture. Many songs and movies have been made about traveling the historic route, which runs from Illinois to California. Built in 1926, the route has long passed its heyday, but it is still a bastion of culture for any fan of mid-century modernism.
I love signs–here’s one marking Route 66.I was so excited to be staying in an icon of the Mother Road.
Several years ago, I was in California doing fieldwork for a cultural resources assignment for Hardlines Design Company, and I found myself driving along Route 66 in San Bernardino, looking for a place to spend a few nights. After a little research, I made an amazing discovery: one of the original Wigwam Motels is located along Route 66 in Rialto, California, just outside of San Bernardino. I immediately booked a room. For any of you who are fans of the Disney movie Cars, the Traffic Cone Motel was modeled after this.
Seven Wigwam Motels were constructed across the country between the 1930s and 1950s to serve as roadside stops for people along the new highway system. The first Wigwam Motel was constructed in Horse Cave, Kentucky, in 1933 and is sadly no longer standing. The one in Rialto was constructed in 1949 and was the last of the motels ever built. Today, only three Wigwam Motels remain, located in Cave City, Kentucky; Holbrook, Arizona; and the one in Rialto where I stayed. The motels are all situated along popular early highways and are (or were) surrounded by other interesting roadside attractions. (For more on this topic, check back for future posts in this series.)
The wigwam motels were all constructed of poured concrete and then painted. They have a round plan and are a single story tall. The design for the wigwam’s was patented in 1935, and all of the wigwams were constructed exactly the same, with the only variety being the front office and the layout of the individual wigwam buildings.
Several of the wigwams at the Rialto motel
Wigwam Motel No. 2 in Cave City, Kentucky. Unfortunately, I did not sleep in these wigwams; I just drove past them on the way to Mammoth Cave about five years ago. While the wigwams have an identical design, the layout and setting is much different than the one in Rialto. All of these wigwams are in a single arched row around a large central wigwam, and the motel is in a more residential setting, surrounded by mature trees.
The Rialto motel is located in a commercial area of the city near fast food restaurants and car lots and is a distinctive landmark for residents. The motel is laid out as a series of teepee-shaped rooms around a central rental office and pool. Each wigwam consists of a single room with a small bathroom. The rooms have the original western-style furniture, including a wigwam-shaped mirror. One thing I was surprised about was the low ceiling; the room is not open all the way to the top.
The complex is in excellent condition and is lucky to have owners that care for the history and the future of the motel. The wigwams were meticulously restored several years ago by the present owners, and the complex was listed in the National Register on January 3, 2012, joining the other two extant wigwam motels.
I enjoyed sleeping in a Wigwam and would like to repeat the experience again in the future! Have any of you ever slept in a wigwam? What did you think of the experience? For more information on the history of the motel, or if you’re in Rialto and want to sleep in a wigwam, click here for the Rialto Wigwam Motel’s website.