It’s that time of year again to celebrate students as college graduation season come to a close. Draper Aden Associates has had the honor of working on numerous higher education projects for a wide array colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic for more than 30 years. We’re proud to have left a lasting, positive impact on many campuses and be a part of projects that transformed schools.Being the time for celebrations and graduation parties, we thought it would be fun to highlight some notable higher education projects on the blog. Let’s take a look at three signature projects at universities in Virginia:
- Virginia Tech Indoor Athletic Training Facility: Working with HKS Architects, Draper Aden provided surveying, site planning and engineering services for the Indoor Practice Facility at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2014. The facility provides a full-sized, indoor NCAA regulation football field for the university’s football program and is suitable for other athletic programs, including soccer and lacrosse as well. Draper Aden took the lead on grading, erosion and sediment control, stormwater management, and utilities engineering for the facility. Support spaces and features including storage, convenience restrooms, videography platforms and audio/video systems were also designed. Additionally, Draper Aden provided construction phase service including subsurface utilities location, construction stake-out, and site/civil site observation. The football team and entire Hokies athletics program have been thrilled with the indoor training facility!
- VCU Academic Learning Commons: In another major campus project, Draper Aden teamed with BCWH Architects and provided site planning, environmental services, engineering design, and construction administration for a four-story, 102,000 square foot academic classroom building for Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. The building contains an auditorium, a lecture hall, nine classrooms, and serves as office space for the School of Social Work and the Department of English. The specific scope of services for this project included grading, drainage, utility design, environmental impact reporting, erosion and sediment control, and construction phase services. When the Academic Learning Commons building was complete, it was awarded a LEED Gold certification for innovation in design, energy performance, and materials quality. The Academic Learning Commons is located at the corner of Floyd Avenue and North Linden Street and among the most notable facilities on the school’s urban campus.
- University of Richmond Pitt Baseball Stadium: Similar to Virginia Tech and VCU, Draper Aden is honored to have a longstanding partnership with the University of Richmond. Recently, we provided civil engineering services, construction quality assurance, and surveying for the conversion of the natural grass baseball field at the University of Richmond’s Pitt Field to custom-designed synthetic turf. Due to the existing field’s poor drainage capabilities, practices and games were rained out. Draper Aden installed a drainage stone base under the new Diamond Series AstroTurf, which resolved the drainage issue. In addition to installing the new turf on the field, Draper Aden provided a geotechnical study for groundwater, subsurface conditions, and infiltration rates to the university. The new field and renovated stadium is striking and offers the perfect home for baseball. Go Spiders!
In the spirit of continuous learning, we invite you to visit our website for more details and insights about our higher education projects and services.
