MBA’s Parking Garage & Soccer Field

Client

Montgomery Bell Academy

Architect

Hastings Architecture Associates

Location

Nashville, TN

Completion

2013

Size

212,000 Square Feet

Construction Cost

$10-20 million

“That the school and its leadership embarked upon a massive transformation to their campus and did so with the greater community and the environment at the forefront of their planning, while also trying to accomplish their academic and athletic needs, is paramount.”

– William Hastings, Hastings Architecture Associates

Montgomery Bell Academy is a private college preparatory school for young men in grades 7-12 located in Nashville, TN. The school’s increased enrollment and academic & athletic offerings meant that MBA needed to begin planning the expansion of their campus in a way that met the needs of the school and their neighbors. Specifically, MBA needed to provide additional parking on campus to relieve the stress caused by students parking along the street in the surrounding neighborhoods. MBA also needed a dedicated space for their soccer team to practice and play without conflicting with other sports. Montgomery Bell Academy’s solved both challenges with one building: a 300 space parking garage with a soccer field on the roof.

The Parent Company served MBA by carefully planning blastings, erecting temporary structures that allowed the campus to continue running, and daily coordination meetings to insure the accelerated construction process stayed on schedule.

Temporary Construction A temporary outfield fence was erected with 30′ high nets above it to simulate the full depth of the field and allow for full playability of the baseball field. Upon completion of the garage, the baseball field was refurbished to its original condition this time with the wall of the garage acting as the outfield fence.

Blasting in a Residential Area The parking garage required the blasting of an approximately 30′ hole in solid rock while not disturbing or damaging the neighborhood houses that were as close as 100 yards away. Careful planning of the controlled blasting was conducted between the testing agency, the construction team and the school to insure all blasting was conducted within the guidelines of the state and in such a manner as to minimize impact to the school and surrounding neighborhoods. Communication with the neighborhood residents regarding scheduled blast times, expectations and protocols for reporting potential damage were all put into place.

Tight Site Without drive up access to the field level of the garage, a temporary drive ramp was built to a single access point. All materials were loaded through this access point and distributed across the 88,000 SF playing surface by hand or via non-motorized carts. Coordination meetings for deliveries and the sequencing of the work were conducted daily to insure the success of the turf installation.

Artificial Turf The soccer field itself was an artificial turf that had to be constructed on top of the roof of the parking garage. This required the installation of multiple layers of waterproofing, drainage and foam filler prior to the installation of the actual turf grass and turf infill.

Indoor Rifle Range The indoor rifle range was built inside the parking garage structure. The review, approval and delivery of the materials needed for the Rifle Range were coordinated while the structure was being built which allowed for an accelerated construction process.