Building a New Hub for the Red Elephants
The Gainesville High School (GHS) Student Activities Center (SAC) project consisted of demolishing and replacing the existing alumni gym from the 1940s and constructing a new facility to serve as the hub of all athletics for the Red Elephants. Memorabilia from the original gym was collected, preserved, and incorporated into the new facility – paying homage to Gainesville High School’s rich history. The project was a continuation of an overarching multi-project campus modernization program.
Maintaining a Safe Environment on an Occupied Site
As safety is a top priority at Carroll Daniel, creating a safe site on the occupied campus was at the forefront of the project. The project team worked with school officials to secure all work areas and install custom wayfinding signage, branded to fit the school’s colors, to direct the flow of foot traffic around the active construction. The proximity of the site to our home office also allowed for our Safety Director to drop in regularly for inspections throughout construction.
Building on Nature’s Slopes
A unique feature of this project that was an initial challenge for the project team was that the site was set into the side of a hill – requiring a complicated foundation system and an extremely labor-intensive steel package. The Carroll Daniel team worked diligently with subcontractor partners to meet the needs of foundation system, overcoming every challenge with a solution and ensuring the project was delivered at the highest quality and on time.
Project Details
The new 93,000 SF, three-level SAC includes an office and meeting space for every athletic program, a media room, multi-purpose gym with an elevated track, players’ lounge, an athletics cafeteria. Carroll Daniel also built an open-air football pavilion and batting cages, an air rifle range with moving targets for the school’s ROTC program and many other amenities to serve the needs of all GHS student-athletes.
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