Hastings Architecture has recently completed two new K-12 projects in Nashville; the Christ Presbyterian Academy Fine Arts Center and the Montgomery Bell Academy H. Frank Burkholder Wellness Center. While the projects have vastly different programs, they’re both critical components on their respective campuses.
The 45,000-sf Fine Arts Center was designed to establish a new front door to Christ Presbyterian Academy’s campus. The project is part of a larger master plan and is sited to enclose and define a new central quad. This new central quad helps transform the 58-acre campus from being automotive-centered to one that embraces the human scale.
Brick massing wraps the building base and references existing campus scale and materiality. An undulating corrugated metal panel, meant to evoke a stage curtain, sheaths the theater house and fly tower. The brick mass opens up at the main entry to reveal a transparent lobby capped with a wooden canopy. The lobby’s glazing pattern introduces a contemporary vocabulary unique to the campus.
The lobby blurs the line between indoors and outdoors with natural materials and abundant natural light to invite curiosity and wonder through both the grand scale of the space and its sculptural gestures. An expansive light monitor diffuses light throughout the lobby and furthers the connection between indoors and out. At night, light from within transforms the building into a glowing lantern, placing the venue’s activity on display.
In total, the building comprises a 550-seat theatre, a black box theatre, makeup and dressing rooms, a costume shop, a scene shop, a green room, administrative offices, and art department offices.
The build team also included Ragan Smith (civil engineer), Civil Site Design Group (landscape architect), EMC Structural Engineers (structural engineer), C. Thomasson Associates (MEP engineer), and Solomon (general contractor).
Montgomery Bell Academy H. Frank Burkholder Wellness Center
The second Nashville project recently completed by Hastings is the 200,000-sf H. Frank Burkholder Wellness Center on the Montgomery Bell Academy campus. The project was designed to support both mental and physical health
The new center strategically cloaks the mass and scale of interior spaces while still carrying forward the campus’ architectural and formal language. It includes space to gather, host, meet, study, perform, meditate, learn, play, practice, and compete. The project’s interiors do not have the aesthetics of traditional athletics programs, but instead attempt to create a more cerebral discussion about holistic wellness.
Included in the new Wellness Center is a 1,200-seat event center; a three-court fieldhouse; a double-height indoor practice field; a golf center; a squash center; a dedicated wrestling gym; a fitness center; locker rooms; training facilities; offices for coaches and administrators; and yoga, meditation, screening, meeting, and instructional classrooms.
The Center has efficient building systems to save an estimated 20% on annual energy costs. High efficiency and low-flow plumbing fixtures reduce potable water consumption by an estimated 35% annually. The project is pursuing LEED Gold certification.
The build team also included Barge Cauthen & Associates (civil engineer), HDLA (landscape architect), EMC Structural Engineers (structural engineer), Smith Seckman Reid (MEP engineer), and Brasfield & Gorrie (general contractor).
Related Stories
| Dec 27, 2011
USGBC’s Center for Green Schools releases Best of Green Schools 2011
Recipient schools and regions from across the nation - from K-12 to higher education - were recognized for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED certified buildings and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.
| Dec 5, 2011
RJM Construction begins building Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul
As the general contractor, RJM is constructing the 94,000-sf building that will consolidate the St. Paul school’s two other locations.
| Sep 23, 2011
Under 40 Leadership Summit
Building Design+Construction’s Under 40 Leadership Summit takes place October 26-28, 2011 Hotel at the Monteleone in New Orleans. Discounted hotel rate deadline: October 2, 2011.
| Sep 12, 2011
LACCD’s $6 billion BIM connection
The Los Angeles Community College District requires every design-build team in its massive modernization program to use BIM, but what they do with their 3D data after construction is completed may be the most important change to business as usual.
| Jul 22, 2011
Five award-winning modular innovations
The Modular Building Institute's 2011 Awards of Distinction highlight fresh ideas in manufactured construction projects.
| May 18, 2011
Former Bronx railyard redeveloped as shared education campus
Four schools find strength in numbers at the new 2,310-student Mott Haven Campus in New York City. The schools—three high schools and a K-4 elementary school—coexist on the 6.5-acre South Bronx campus, which was once a railyard.
| May 18, 2011
Eco-friendly San Antonio school combines history and sustainability
The 113,000-sf Rolling Meadows Elementary School in San Antonio is the Judson Independent School District’s first sustainable facility, with green features such as vented roofs for rainwater collection and regionally sourced materials.
| May 18, 2011
New Reform Jewish Independent school opens outside Boston
The Rashi School, one of only 17 Reform Jewish independent schools in North American and Israel, opened a new $30 million facility on a 166-acre campus shared with the Hebrew SeniorLife community on the Charles River in Dedham, Mass.
| May 18, 2011
Addition provides new school for pre-K and special-needs kids outside Chicago
Perkins+Will, Chicago, designed the Early Learning Center, a $9 million, 37,000-sf addition to Barrington Middle School in Barrington, Ill., to create an easily accessible and safe learning environment for pre-kindergarten and special-needs students.
