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Distinguished Facility-of-the-Year Awards: Hard Labor

These outdoor facility winners are excellent examples of hard-court construction.

This year’s hard-court winners of the Tennis Industry/American Sports Builders Association’s Distinguished Facility of the Year Awards span the nation, from New Hampshire to California. Five of the facilities are at schools or universities, two are municipal facilities and one is at a park. This year, the Outdoor Tennis Facility hard-court category has both the Silver Award and Bronze Award winners. The new George S. Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City is the Silver Award Winner. The project involved a tight building site that required concrete-retaining walls to be constructed first. The walls allowed the post-tension slabs to be tensioned in a way that eliminated construction joints and produced a seamless surface.

The Bronze Award Winner is the College Boulevard Activity Center Tennis Complex in Olathe, Kan. The center was looking to host the Kansas State High School Tennis Tournament and needed 12 top-quality courts. Officials demolished an existing soccer field and built a dozen post-tensioned concrete tennis courts, which utilize existing bleachers, lighting and a press box from the original soccer field.

The configuration of the eight new courts at the Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham, Ala., came about because part of the property is located on a 100-year flood zone and school funds for the project were limited. Grading had to be minimized; the result is four two-court batteries that are terraced up the side of a hill, while still maintaining ADA accessibility.

At the Dublin School in Dublin, N.H., challenges included determining how much of the clay to remove from the five old clay courts, and how much of the existing base material could be salvaged. The contractor then added gravel to provide the necessary slope and elevation for the four new post-tensioned concrete courts.

For the Forest Hills Eastern High School Tennis Complex in Ada, Mich., the contractor had a two-month window to demolish the eight existing asphalt tennis courts and install eight new post-tensioned concrete courts, so as not to interfere with the spring and fall tennis programs. To avoid the mid-day summer heat, which would affect curing, concrete pours began at 3 a.m.

Meadowwood Park in Aurora, Colo., was completely redesigned and renovated, including demolishing old asphalt tennis courts and adding a 14-foot-wide extension to bring the courts to regulation widths. In addition to the new post-tensioned concrete subbase, the project included installation of seating, court lighting, fencing, concrete ramps and bleachers.

For the tennis courts at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, Calif., the contractor had to contend with multiple encounters of unmarked underground utilities; a large bank of high-voltage cables was nearly hit as they were digging footings for the retainer walls. A similar encounter at another location on the site required rerouting the main storm drain line and increasing the depth of a nearby retaining wall.

Last but not least, the project at New York’s SUNY Cortland meant demolishing 18 old courts, which required asbestos abatement, and installing 16 courts in their place, which includes six tournament tennis courts with a cushioned system. To deal with the storm water and aquifer protection, bio-retention swales, an underground detention system, trench drains, catch basins and permeable pavers with an infiltration system were all added.

The deadline for the 2017 Outstanding Facility-of-the-Year Awards is June 1; awards will be presented at the 2017 ASBA Technical Meeting, held in New Orleans, La., Dec. 1-5. For details, contact the ASBA at 866-501-ASBA.

Briarwood Christian School

Birmingham, Alabama

Nominated By: Holcombe Norton Partners Inc.

No. of Courts: 8

Architect/Engineer: Holcombe Norton Partners Inc.

Specialty Contractor: Lower Bros.

Surface: California Sports Surfaces Plexipave

Nets, Posts, Windscreens: Putterman Athletics

ASBA Certified Builder: Linn Lower

Forest Hills Eastern High School Tennis Complex

Ada, Michigan

Nominated By: GMB Architecture + Engineering

No. of Courts: 8

Architect/Engineer: GMB Architecture + Engineering

Specialty Contractor: Racquet Sports

Surface: California Sports Surfaces

Posts, Sleeves, Anchors: Edwards/Roldri

Windscreens: Putterman Athletics

Drainage: ACO Sport

College Boulevard Activity Center

Olathe, Kansas

Nominated By: McConnell & Associates Corp.

No. of Courts: 12

Architect/Engineer: Land 3 Studio

Specialty Contractor: McConnell & Associates Corp.

Surface: California Sports Surfaces Plexipave

Nets, Posts: Douglas Industries

Cables & Hardware: Tech-Con Systems

ASBA Certified Builder: Michael Mehaffey, JR

Dublin School Tennis Facility

Dublin, New Hampshire

Nominated By: Cape and Island Tennis & Track

No. of Courts: 4

General Contractor: Cape and Island Tennis & Track

Surface: California Sports Surfaces Plexipave

Nets: Har-Tru Sports

Posts: Douglas Industries

ASBA Certified Builder: David Moore

Sage Hill School Aquatic Center & Tennis Courts

Newport Coast, California

Nominated By: Zaino Tennis Courts Inc.

No. of Courts: 6

Specialty Contractor: Zaino Tennis Courts Inc.

Surface: California Sports Surfaces Plexipave

ASBA Certified Builders: Richard Zaino, Brian Hoggard

George S. Eccles Tennis Center

Salt Lake City, Utah

Nominated By: Tennis and Track Co.

No. of Courts: 6

Specialty Contractor: Tennis and Track Co.

Surface: California Sports Surfaces Plexipave

Nets, Posts: Douglas Industries

ASBA Certified Builder: Brian Renner

SUNY Cortland Tennis Courts

Cortland, New York

Nominated By: E-Z Paving/Sealcoat LLC.

No. of Courts: 16

Architect/Engineer: The LA Group, Landscape Architecture & Engineering PC

Specialty Contractor: E-Z Paving/Sealcoat LLC.

Surface: Nova Sports USA

Meadowwood Park Tennis Facility

Aurora, Colo.

Nominated By: Renner Sports Surfaces

No. of Courts: 4

Architect/Engineer: KWS Engineers

General Contractor: Renner Sports Surfaces

Surface: Renner Sports Surfaces Acrylic Color Coatings

Nets, Posts, Windscreens: Douglas Industries

Lighting: LSI Industries

Practice Wall: Bakko Backboards

ASBA Certified Builders: Colin Donovan, Scott Starman

From the May 2017 issue
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