Construction began immediately following the official groundbreaking earlier this year.
(City of Upper Arlington photo)
As one of the largest investments in Upper Arlington, Ohio, history, the $85 million Bob Crane Community Center will provide a much-needed indoor community recreation and gathering space when it opens in 2025.
"The lack of a centrally located community center in Upper Arlington has long been an issue," explained Parks and Recreation director Debbie McLaughlin. "A 2018 Parks and Recreation comprehensive plan study process brought this issue back into focus as a top priority for the city. The results of a statistically valid survey identified several unmet needs for recreation facilities and the relative importance residents placed on having those facilities available to them."
A priority list included fitness and exercise facilities; a multi-generational recreation center; aquatics; a running/walking track; meeting and community gathering space; and basketball/volleyball courts. A similar list of priorities emerged for programs that require indoor facilities, including adult fitness and wellness programs; senior fitness and wellness programs; water fitness; family open gym; and learn-to-swim programs.
"The Upper Arlington community had considered options for a community center on several occasions over the past 30 to 40 years," said McLaughlin. "In every case, a variety of associated challenges brought the issue to a close. Knowing this history, city leadership recognized the importance of resident involvement and input. City Council members formed a resident task force to lead this most recent study initiative. In turn, the task force crafted a study process that included extensive community engagement at all stages, to ensure the resulting recommendations were a true reflection of resident sentiment and community need.
"We believe the Bob Crane Community Center will serve as inspiration to other fully developed communities that are grappling with how to find new ways to meet their residents' recreation and leisure needs through creative partnerships and reinvestment in aging commercial districts."
Several challenges could have easily derailed the project. For example, identifying a suitable location that would not take away from park land within a fully built-out community was an issue that needed to be addressed early on by the task force.
"The opportunity to locate the community center as part of the Kingsdale redevelopment project was a game changer, providing the ideal, central location within the community, while presenting a new set of challenges that had to be addressed through the design process, due to the limited available footprint."
McLaughlin also noted the project has been accomplished without the need to increase taxes.
"The city has issued $62.05 million in bonds and is using $14 million in existing city cash. A capital campaign has successfully met its goal of raising $8 million in private funds in support of the project. A state grant has also been secured."
Site preparations began in early April 2023. Construction began immediately following the official groundbreaking.
"Despite it being a windy, rainy day, the ceremony was a great success," said McLaughlin. "The inclement weather did not dampen the spirit and excitement of community members in attendance, many of whom have been waiting for several years for this day. The groundbreaking was a celebration of many successful components that have coalesced to make this project possible."
Cincinnati-based MSA Sport designed the structure in partnership with Perkins+Will. The building is being constructed by ECBC, a partnership between Elford and Continental Building Company. According to Upper Arlington's Park Development and Arts superintendent Jeff Anderson, the biggest construction challenge involves trying to construct a 134,500-sq.-ft. structure on a 1.4-acre site.
"The small site was a driving force in the design of the facility, resulting in a stacked design with a variety of recreation amenities provided on different levels. It also required a detailed logistics plan to deal with the tight routing of construction traffic and a limited amount of laydown space."
Early construction tasks have included installation of ram aggregate piers, footings, storm structures and reinforcement and placement of shear walls. The construction tower crane has also been erected.
Current and upcoming activities include continued installation of footings, MEP underground installation and first floor slab on grade. Work also will begin on the concrete superstructure for the building mezzanine. The structural steel top out is scheduled to be completed in early 2024.
"For the swimming pool, the logistics of excavating the pool after the structure is in place will be the most challenging aspect," said Anderson. "This approach is necessary, so the concrete shoring activities are performed from a suitable surface, but this requires us to provide multiple different openings in the façade to allow for incoming and outgoing trucks and equipment during the pool construction. This forces us to engage almost every subcontractor on the project to understand how each trade is impacted.
"For the basketball courts, we've already begun the coordination effort. This includes ensuring all structural accommodations for the basketball hoops are in place during the placement of the adjacent concrete structure, as well as understanding the tolerances of the concrete placement and how this impacts the recess in the concrete to ensure a flush transition from the wood floor profile to the adjacent floor finishes."
Anderson described the job assignment as unique, as it's the third of three projects built on a 7.5-acre campus where all the site utilities are accounted for and already in place.
"The coordination required to accommodate this project was considered back in the fall of 2021, during the initial installation of the utilities to make certain only minor tweaks would be needed, based on the final layout of the building's hardscapes. Furthermore, this project required just shy of 500 rammed aggregate piers for ground improvement measures to ensure the necessary bearing capacity of the foundations was achieved."
A total of 6,000 cu. yds. of soil will be excavated for the foundations. The project requires 8,900 cu. yds. of concrete, although crews are still determining the amount of concrete in the footers.
Some of the larger capacity pieces of equipment include a 50k trackhoe; a 75k trackhoe; an SK415 tower crane; and a PC138 excavator.
Concrete is the main material used throughout the project, and MSA has ensured to integrate this concept into the overall building finishes by maintaining exposed columns, ceilings and polished concrete floors. For the façade, a mixture of Ironspot brick, curtain wall and terracotta paneling is needed to complete the building's skin.
McLaughlin added, "This is a great source of pride for the many members of the administration, city council and the community, who have been part of an extensive, three-year process. For many, the Bob Crane Community Center represents one of the last big puzzle pieces needed to assure Upper Arlington's health and vibrancy in the coming years and decades." CEG
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