Architects find big ticket projects in schools

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Several area schools have recentlyg completed or are currently workingon outdoor, multi-sporrt athletic facilities with countless features and Schools such as , , , and all have outdoor athletic and recreatiomn complexes for their students. On the collegee front, opened the $1.7 million Lady Tige r Stadium for its softball team in 2007 and anew $3 millioj baseball stadium project, funded by , is currentlyt under construction. Likewise, completed renovations of its baseball facility inAugust 2008.
There is more to building these stadiums than merely sowing grasas and settingup bleachers, and architectsx play a large role in turninfg the respective schools’ goals into viable Architects must make sure new building mesh with the designs and architecture of the otherf buildings on campus. They must also ensurw proper sightlines for fans and allow for prope vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow in and out of the saysBob Land, architecrt for , Inc. His firm designesd St. George’s complex, which is used by both the upperd andmiddle school.
The football, soccer, lacrosser and track and field facilities are beintg built in stages while the schoo l acquires the funding tocomplete construction. “Flexibilityy was one of their requirements,” Land says. Land says the stadiumn will feature concessions, restroom buildings and locker rooms underthe bleachers. The field is sunk down so the buildingw will be in compliance withthe 100-Yead Flood Plan and also to allow for better sightlines for the “Parents volunteering can still see their kids playing,” he St. George’s also implemented stadium lights, whichy Land says have become commonplace, that use 60% less energgy than traditionalstadium lighting.
MUS built its $3.7 million multi-sport stadium in 2007, whicuh replaced the 40-year-old, 500-seat aluminunm bleacher facility which athletic director Bobbyt Alston says wasbecoming unsafe. “We were looking to build somethint that had better sightlines to the field and was up to date as far as the prese box area and those type of thingsare concerned,” Alstohn says. Metcalf Crump, president of , Inc., and a MUS designed the new complex whichseats 1,400 and features a synthetix turf playing surface, track and field restrooms and ticket and memorabiliwa sales areas. The new grandstandr also features apress box, video coaches’ box and a “VIPo suite.
” Crump, whose firm also designef outdoor sports facilities for PDS and , says it was challengingy to design MUS’s new stadium within the confinexs of the school’s existing infrastructure and “The site itself was very squeezed between sloped terrain at the edge of the trackl and two large, 50-foot pylons supportingf flood lights for the fields,” Crump “Moving these tall light poles woulcd be an expense we all wanted to We solved this problemm by designing the new stadium partly around the , was the contractor for the MUS project, through some design tweaks, actually ended up costing $300,000 less than the proposed budget. The mastef plan for St.
George’s athletic facility will ultimatelh require morethan $4.7 million to complete. So far, the schookl has raised $1.5 says Sarah Cowan, director of communications.