Best Sports/Entertainment: Arlen Specter U.S. Squash Center
Located in the World War I-era National Guard Armory on the campus of Drexel University, the 76,000-sq-ft squash center brings the sport’s energy and activity front and center beneath the building’s distinctive arched roof trusses. The project team needed to channel some of that energy to tackle a host of challenges associated with renovating the historic structure for its new use. After interior demolition was completed, a building-wide laser scan revealed a 2-ft discrepancy between as-builts and actual conditions. Plans to increase basement ceiling heights were complicated by existing footers that were exposed after removal of the basement slab. To make the most of the limited ceiling heights, the project team redesigned most of the overhead mechanical sheet metal and piping prior to fabrication.
Maximizing installation efficiencies helped keep this expanded project facet within the original specified budget.