Grace Christian Academy Partners with Studio Four Design on New Athletic Facility

KNOXVILLE, TN — Grace Christian Academy partnered with Studio Four Design, a top Knoxville, Tennessee, architect and design firm, to build the all-new Coffey Fieldhouse athletic facility for the growing private Christian school. The new three-story addition to the school campus includes fitness performance training space, a 40-yard turf area, athletic director and coaches' offices, locker room and sports medicine/training accommodations.

"This project not only provided a much needed state-of-the-art facility for our sports and athletic programs to move into with room for growth but also allowed our upper school to utilize the vacated space for new academic classrooms," said Rob Hammond, Head of School at Grace Christian Academy. "While collaborating with the Studio Four Design team, not only were we able to meet the needs of our students, but we were also able to maintain our budget and create a visually exciting facility that complements our campus well and serves as an all-encompassing athletic center."

The recently completed Coffey Fieldhouse was created to accommodate the needs of both student-athletes and the athletic staff. Housing home and visitor football locker rooms and facilities for wrestling, cheerleading and other sports teams, the building also includes coaches' offices, a media room and additional public bathrooms serving existing sports fields.  The top floor includes an expansive weight room and indoor practice area that opens onto a large outdoor practice field by way of seven full glass garage doors. The athletic training and sports medicine room, provided by Dr. Sean Grace and the Tennessee Orthopedic Center, will allow for state-of-the-art orthopedic care and physical therapy on-site. The new building also features a theater quality media film room with stadium seating donated by Regal Entertainment Group. This room will be used for athletes and coaches to review game film as well as for health education class purposes.

"From groundbreaking to ribbon cutting, the entire Coffey Fieldhouse project took approximately 18 months to design and build," said Stacy Cox, President of Studio Four Design. "Our goal was to work with Randy [McKamey, Head Football Coach at Grace Christian Academy who served as Construction Project Manager] and Rob to provide a functional design solution that would minimize costs and meet the needs of the students, coaches, staff and families who would benefit from the project.  We are impressed with the tireless effort that Coach McKamey and his team put forth in making this project a reality."

Additional support for the project was provided by Jack and Susan Coffey, the principal donors for the Coffey Fieldhouse and Dwight Disney of Disney Construction whose company oversaw the construction effort.