L: 1892 photo of when the building was the home of the Crystal Ice Manufacturing & Cold Storage Company. R: 2024 photograph of the building that is half the size of what it once was

HDC was commissioned to prepare a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation of the old Spaghetti Warehouse building on West Broad Street in Columbus prior to its anticipated demolition for new development on the site. I think just about everyone I know in Columbus has eaten there at one time or another. Since the restaurant was a landmark in Columbus for so long, part of the documentation package includes a 3D scan that can be converted into a video to allow the public to view. Unfortunately, the cost of scanning the over 29,000 SF building was more than the owners were willing to spend. HDC offered a compromise to use a non-construction accurate scanning method on just the restaurant portion that results in a walk-through model, which is less than the 25,000 SF maximum size Truescan’s equipment can handle. HDC’s president Charissa Durst prepared the historical report and plan drawings and HDC’s trusty photographer Jeff Bates took the photographs.

The Spaghetti Warehouse is a chain of restaurants that originated in an old pillow factory in Dallas in 1969. When the Spaghetti Warehouse opened in Columbus in a former ice manufacturing building in April 1978, it was the first location outside of Texas and with the ability to seat 800, was the largest location in the Spaghetti Warehouse chain. The Columbus restaurant was always a tenant in the building, occupying the entire first floor and the mezzanine level of the south wing. The kitchen occupied the center section of the building and the north portion had very low ceilings featuring a 1950s diner theme. The upper two floors of the north and south sections were used as storage. The restaurant had to evacuate the premises in March 2022 after the roof collapsed over the kitchen. Without needed repairs the building was deemed unsafe to occupy and the restaurant moved to a new location downtown at Columbus Commons.

Click here to read about the history of the building and click here to view the interior scanned model of the restaurant.

     
Ziti poses at the FastCAT runs sponsored by the Potomac Valley Afghan Hound Club (left) and Potomac Valley Samoyed Club (right), where she earned her FCAT9 certification.

We’ve noticed that with every FastCAT 100-yard dash, Ziti’s time improves a little and her control of her legs also improves. So, for Thanksgiving, Ziti went to White Post, Virginia, to run twice a day for four days. It was fairly warm on Wednesday and Thursday, where Ziti posted the fourth fastest run for a medium-sized dog on Thanksgiving Day. Temperatures dropped on Friday and Saturday and every dog’s time, including Ziti’s, slowed as well. But, Ziti ran fast enough to earn a FCAT9 certification and move up to being the #4 beagle in the country for 2024!

     
L: Overall view of interior looking SE. R: Detail of floor beam with bark still attached.

Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. HDC had previously utilized the College of Wooster Tree Ring Lab  in 2011 to date the logs used in the construction of the Deardurff House in Franklinton, Ohio. The house was known as the oldest structure in Franklin County still on its original foundation, built c. 1807. Dr. Greg Wiles took core samples in 2011 and determined that some of the logs were cut in 1798 and others in 1806, confirming the 1807 construction date, much to everyone’s relief! We suspect that the earlier logs were salvaged from the first shelter constructed by Abraham Deardurff and his teenage son before he went back to Pennsylvania to bring the rest of the family to Ohio.

Dr. Wiles came out to the Macedonia Church in the summer of 2024, but was unable to definitively date the logs since the ones he could reach were hewn and had lost their outermost rings. He asked to return when construction had started to see if better log candidates could be identified. Construction started in November 2024 and in December, the contractor, Mullins Construction found that termites had damaged the floorboards from below. The damaged floorboards were removed, exposing most of the original floor beams to view. Some of the floor logs still had bark, which makes them good candidates for dating. The Tree Ring Lab hopes to be on site this Spring to take samples from the wall and roof structure as well as the floor beams to get a complete picture of the building.

     
L: Front elevation of the Deardurff House after removal of wood siding exposed the underlying log structure. R: Dr. Greg Wiles taking a core sample in 2011.

L: Elevation of Cedarville Opera House by Existing Conditions. R: Model of Clifton School by Truescan.

In 2006, The Kleingers Group, a civil engineering and surveying company headquartered in Cincinnati, conducted the construction surveying for our project at the Lincoln Theatre. After the project was completed, they came to our office to introduce a new service they had started on 3D scanning. After discussions on timelines and costs, we concluded that it was about the same cost to get a building scanned with drawings exported as it was for us to actually field measure and prepare the drawings. Field measuring in person also had the advantage in that we could also conduct a conditions assessment at the same time. However, it also poses a challenge if the building was very tall or not safe to measure in person.

This year, HDC opted for 3D scanning for the first time and worked with Truescan, who are the Kleingers team spun off on its own. The price was surprisingly affordable and the cloud model created by the scanning allows us to get dimensions for any part of the building without having to go out and measure it! It also offered efficiency as compared to typical field measuring. The scanner operator explained that the equipment has advanced quite a bit and what used to take 45 minutes to scan now takes 45 seconds. The equipment captures millions of pixels per second with 2 mm accuracy. HDC also utilized the company Existing Conditions to scan a different building at the same time.

HDC is pleased to announce that Jennifer McAdam, a registered architect, has started with the company as of January 2025. Jennifer received an undergraduate degree in Architecture from The Ohio State University with continuing education courses in AutoCAD and Three-Dimensional Computer Aided Design. She lived and worked in California for over 10 years before returning to Columbus with her husband to raise their children. Jennifer’s 25 years of experience include multi-family housing (Grandview Crossing), health care (Nationwide Children’s Hospital), higher education student housing (College of Calumet St. Joseph), and streetscape improvements for the City of Mount Vernon. She immediately immersed herself into completing the construction documents for the Mount Zion Baptist Church Rehabilitation and Addition in Athens and will be taking over construction administration of the Carol Stewart Village project for the City of Columbus.

John Creasy retired at the end of 2024 after working over 10 years at HDC. John grew up in Delaware County, Ohio, and earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He worked at various architectural and engineering firms in central Ohio before landing at HDC just in time to spearhead the completion of the construction documents for the final phase of the Woodward Opera House rehabilitation and addition in Mount Vernon. He was project coordinator and construction administrator for renovation projects in Springfield, Ohio, and lead the construction administration of the Indian Mound (now Scioto Southland) Recreation Center renovation in Columbus. At the time of his retirement, John was working on wrapping up the lower-level renovation of the Beightler Armory for the Ohio National Guard and renovation of City of Columbus grant-funded projects at Carol Stewart Village and All THAT Teen Center. We wish John a long and relaxing life in retirement!

     
Ziti’s Welcome Back Card from the Gated Dock (left) and smiling on a bench at a park (right)

As early as 3 months after her back surgery, Ziti started getting the zoomies and we started taking her to the park for a few hours to dissipate the excess energy. About 5 months after surgery, her need for something to do reached a point that we signed her up for a CPE Speedway trial at ARF in July. Speedway is fairly low impact (no jumps or weaves) so many people bring their older dogs to Speedway when they get too old to do agility. Ziti entered 7 events and came away with 7 ribbons (2 first, 2 second, 2 third, and 1 fourth place) so she obviously still has the drive! Click here for a video of her last Slingshot run. In September, we took her to a FastCAT event at the Gated Dock, where she got her start in this event. She ran the 100-yard dash in about 8.5 seconds, which is slow for her but would put her in the top 10 nationwide. She may just need more practice to figure out just how fast she can run and still have control over her rear legs. As a reward for having a great run, we took Ziti to a park in Crawford County.

     
L: The Wagon House after exterior improvements and addition of a brick walk. R:  Belmont County Courthouse

Back in 2012, HDC was commissioned by the Greenbrier Historical Society in Lewisburg, West Virginia, to complete exterior repairs of the Lewisburg Barracks, a late 18th century log building, and the Wagon House, a 1990s building constructed to house a Conestoga wagon. The Wagon House project also included a new accessible brick walkway to both the historical society and to the parking lot. Cathie Senter had previously worked with Gabe Hays, a landscape architect based in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and recommended him for the walkway work. Gabe’s business was subsequently acquired by Wallace Pancher Group, based in northwestern Pennsylvania. Gabe contacted HDC in 2022 to support a landscaping and civil engineering project at the historic Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville. The architectural scope consisted of repairing the cast iron railings and light fixtures, designing an attractive enclosure around the existing cooling tower, getting wheelchair access to the courthouse annex, a former church building, and coordinating all the work with preservation reviewers at the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.

     
Front corner and rear corner of the Old City Hall in North Olmsted, Ohio

HDC was awarded the project to prepare a feasibility study to update the city’s Old Town Hall to comply with current building code, life safety, and accessibility requirements for continued use. The Old Town Hall was constructed in 1914 to house the town’s administrative offices in the basement, which also included a council chamber, vault, and jail and a community center/auditorium on the first floor that was used for performances, meetings, and graduations. This building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places because in 1931, it was the site of the creation of the first municipal bus service in the country, which is still in operation today. Over the years renovations and repairs have taken place, including replacement of the windows and doors and partitioning of the front half of the auditorium into offices, restrooms, and a kitchenette. The jail was removed from the basement and the lower level is now mainly used for storage. The first floor is still used sporadically for meetings. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. HDC fast- tracked the accessibility portion of the report so that the city could submit for a grant that was due in mid-September. HDC recommended eliminating the deteriorated 1990s wheelchair ramp and replacing it with an elevator that provides exterior access at grade and access to the basement and first floor on the interior.

     
HDC’s shelves before and after a visit from MCX-CMAC

Between 2009 and 2012, HDC conducted archaeological investigations at 6 reservoir/flood control sites in Massachusetts and Connecticut for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New England District. The work resulted in 49 boxes of historic and prehistoric artifacts, all of which were bagged and labeled as per federal curation standards after being analyzed and photographed for the technical reports. As part of our contract, HDC was required to curate the collection for 10 years, after which the Corps would decide whether to retrieve the artifacts or pay for additional years of storage. The Corps agreed that the artifacts would go to the Mandatory Center of Expertise (MCX) for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections (CMAC) in St. Louis, Missouri. Personnel from MCX-CMAC arrived at HDC’s offices in May, loaded the boxes into rental vehicles, and drove back to St. Louis the same day. Now we just have to find something else to fill those empty shelves!

      View of bagged and tagged artifacts in a box and a metal barrel strap individually tagged