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Distinguished Facility-of-the-Year Awards: Inside Game

Tennis helps round out the offerings of these two award-winning indoor facilities.

By Peter Francesconi

As we know, tennis courts — whether 78-foot, 60-foot or 36-foot — can be laid out just about anywhere, indoors or outside. Lines for different size tennis courts not only get blended into themselves, but when it comes to many indoor multipurpose buildings, tennis court lines often are blended with lines for other sports, too.

In February, we honored the Montgomery TennisPlex in Boyds, Md., as the Outstanding Indoor Tennis Facility for 2014 in the Tennis Industry/America Sports Builders Association Facility-of-the-Year Awards. But two other indoor facilities, while not solely for tennis, also come in for “Distinguished” honors.

The 54,000-square-foot Fuhrer Field House at Doane College in Crete, Neb., won the ASBA’s award for Distinguished Indoor Multipurpose Field House. The project was both a renovation with an addition, which meant the contractor had to deal with an existing slab next to a new slab, so care had to be taken with the expansion joint between the two slabs. A special flexible expansion strip made of urethane was used to fill the gap, so there was no “bump” that might affect play on the surface. Another challenge came with the existing subfloor: The original floor was poured urethane covered with a vulcanized sheet good. But the urethane contained heavy metals, which required hiring a hazardous waste removal contractor. Once the urethane and sheet good surface were removed, the existing concrete substrate had to be shot-blasted to remove residual adhesives. But the result of all this is a Field House ready for action for many sports, activities and events, including tennis.

The new gym at Compadre Academy in Tempe, Ariz., won the ASBA’s Distinguished Indoor Multipurpose Gym Award. The school is a special magnet school for the Tempe Union High School District and is dedicated to providing learning opportunities to kids who were having a difficult time in school. Although the 7,176-square-foot facility was primarily built for volleyball and basketball, tennis, including Youth Tennis play, can also be laid out on the new, resilient athletic flooring.

Distinguished Indoor Multipurpose Field House

Fuhrer Field House at Doane College

Crete, NE

(Nominated by Kiefer U.S.A.)

Specialty Contractor: Kiefer U.S.A.

Multipurpose Surface & Track: Mondo America Inc.

Distinguished Indoor Multipurpose Gym

Compadre Academy

Tempe, Ariz.

(Nominated by Robert Cohen Co. LLC)

Specialty Contractor: Robert Cohen Co. LLC

Flooring: Mondo America Inc.

For details on the 2015 Outstanding Facility-of-the-Year Awards, contact the ASBA at 866-501-ASBA or info@sportsbuilders.org, or visit sportsbuilders.org.

See all articles by Peter Francesconi

About the Author

Peter Francesconi is editorial director of Tennis Industry magazine.

From the July 2015 issue
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