The Oakland Unified School District has recently collaborated with Verde Design for design work on multiple elementary, middle, and high schools’ athletic facilities.
MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOL – The Verde team designed a vacant lot adjacent to the school into a popular, synthetic turf multi-purpose field and track. At the adjacent Sobrante Park, the natural turf area was also regraded and new turf and irrigations systems were installed.
FRICK IMPACT ACADEMY – We designed a 50x100yd synthetic turf soccer field to support the District’s desire to provide more welcoming play opportunities (and less asphalt) for students at the school’s recess play area. The field lies directly on the existing asphalt paving with a drainage pad, and fits seamlessly in the space (requiring no redesign of the existing space). Drainage, irrigation and electrical improvements, entry signage, and plantings were also included to welcome visitors.
BRET HARTE MIDDLE SCHOOL – Similar to Frick Impact Academy, a new 45x60yd synthetic soccer field was designed for the school to provide students with year-round play, which was desirable not only to the school, but surrounding community as well. With existing wall murals surrounding the field and limited existing seating locations, a concrete seatwall was installed at the base of the existing mural for students to enjoy the artwork while waiting for the next game to begin. Additional improvements included guardrail modifications for increased safety and updates to existing utilities.
ELMHURST MIDDLE SCHOOL Elmhurst Middle School was in need of a field that could handle hours of play. The Oakland Unified School District worked with the Verde team to design a synthetic turf play field, this work included extensive field modifications to the surrounding turf footprint to ensure that the new field benefited from an efficient irrigation system. Schedule was a critical part of the project, with work occurring over the weekends to accelerate the schedule, but to minimize impacts to the community.
These efforts ensured that the school received a new field just in time for Fall, while preserving community support, and meeting project budget, and schedule.
EDNA BREWER MIDDLE SCHOOL To achieve the maximum amount of playspace, Verde Design explored options to maximize play and reduce asphalt paving currently filling the space. To accomplish this, the Verde team developed a solution that met the schedule and budget, without requiring an extensive redesign of the site – the turf was installed directly on top of the asphalt pavement with new drainage and irrigation.
To complete the re-imagining of this site, we also reconfigured pathways surrounding the field to ensure maintenance vehicle access, and made additional accessibility improvements.
MCCLYMONDS HIGH SCHOOL – The stadium’s natural grass field was reconstructed and replaced with synthetic turf to respond to high-use and student need. Track and field events, bleacher upgrades, and irrigation improvements were also made. To help reduce project costs, grading was designed so that no soil off-haul was required (reducing associated excess soil removal costs).
SKYLINE HIGH SCHOOL – At Skyline High School over 4,000 feet of fire lane was reconstructed, a new synthetic turf field was installed, and the existing track was resurfaced. The original turf was installed over a damaged layer, which caused planarity issues. We addressed this and additional work on the tennis courts.
To renovate the tennis courts, which were not in-use, we reconstructed from sub-grade up. Existing parking lots were added to our scope without impact to schedule.
OAKLAND TECH HIGH SCHOOL – A replacement track & field (including sand and jump pits)were installed after receiving much use from students and the community, including track surfacing, the field’s drainage pad, irrigation, and striping to ensure that athletes benefitted from a consistent playing surface under the field.
