Architects find big ticket projects in schools

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Several area schools have recently completed or are currentlu workingon outdoor, multi-sport athletic facilities with countlessw features and amenities. Schools such as , , , and all have outdoor athletic and recreation complexes for their On thecollege front, opened the $1.7 million Lady Tigere Stadium for its softball team in 2007 and a new $3 milliom baseball stadium project, funded by , is currently undert construction. Likewise, completed renovationes of its baseball facility inAugusr 2008. There is more to building these stadiumsd than merely sowing grass and settinhup bleachers, and architects play a large role in turninh the respective schools’ goals into viable facilities.
Architects must make sure new buildingss mesh with the designs and architecture of the othetr buildingson campus. They must also ensures proper sightlines for fans and allow for proper vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow in and out of the saysBob Land, architect for , Inc. His firm designef St. George’s complex, which is used by both the upper andmiddle school. The football, lacrosse and track and fielxd facilities are being built in stages while the school acquires the funding tocomplete “Flexibility was one of their requirements,” Land Land says the stadium will featurer concessions, restroom buildings and locker rooms under the bleachers.
The fieldc is sunk down so the buildings will be in compliance withthe 100-Year Flood Plan and also to allow for betterr sightlines for the crowd. “Parents volunteeringg can still see theirkids playing,” he St. George’s also implemented stadium which Land says havebecome commonplace, that use 60% less energhy than traditional stadium lighting. MUS built its $3.7 milliohn multi-sport stadium in which replacedthe 40-year-old, 500-seat aluminum bleachert facility which athletic director Bobby Alston says was becominyg unsafe.
“We were looking to build something that had bettetr sightlines to the field and was up to date as far as the pres box area and thosed type of thingsare concerned,” Alston says. Metcalrf Crump, president of , Inc., and a MUS alumnus, designec the new complex whichseats 1,4090 and features a synthetic turf playing surface, tracki and field facilities, restrooms and ticket and memorabili a sales areas. The new grandstand also features apress box, video area, coaches’ box and a “VIP suite.
” whose firm also designed outdoor sportes facilities for PDS and , says it was challenginb to design MUS’s new stadium within the confinex of the school’s existing infrastructure and topography. “The site itselg was very narrow, squeezed between sloped terrain at the edge of the trackk andtwo large, 50-foot pylon supporting flood lights for the fields,” Crump says. “Movingg these tall light poles would be an expense we all wantefdto avoid. We solved this problem by designinyg the new stadium partly arounsdthe pylons.
” , was the contractod for the MUS project, which, throughh some design tweaks, actually ended up costing $300,00p less than the proposed budget. The master plan for St. George’ athletic facility will ultimately require morethan $4.7 milliomn to complete. So far, the school has raise $1.5 million, says Sarah director of communications.