Preston Field is an adult softball, baseball and Little League field and grand stand that adjoins a community park in Incline Village, NV. Since 1976, this much used and beloved park has been home to countless aspiring ball players, memorable practices, chilly night games, and decades of corrosion, erosion, rusting, and floor failure. Such was the state of the building when BJG was asked to assess whether the building should stay or go… .face the wrecking ball or be saved to play another day.

 Field of Dreams - Preston Field
Incline Village General Improvement District

BJG was hired initially to study a multitude of construction options to replace the combined functions of bleachers, bathrooms, storage, and dugouts that Preston Field houses under one roof. This roof became the crux of the problem for the deteriorating building.  Options for replacement included metal bleachers combined with ‘prefabricated toilet buildings’ and site built dugout structures. None of the options held the charm and presence of the old concrete block building and all of the options presented costlier projects than renovating the existing shell of Preston Field. After presenting our findings, the Incline Village General Improvement District hired BJG to complete a  renovation of the bleacher building, adjoining storage garage and improve the ball field drainage system.

The key to the interior rusting of exposed steel and spalling of the exterior masonry wall was the poor condition of the ‘roof’ or in this case, the coating , over the bleachers themselves. Compounding this poor coating was the absence of proper flashing and sealants at walls and joints of the roof-wall conditions.

This is Tech Speak for ‘The building leaked like a sieve.’

One major impact of the water continually leaking into the  masonry walls throughout the cold winter months was the freeze-thaw spalling of the block surface.  For years this surface damage was remedied with coatings applied  to the walls during the (dry) summer months  that simply fell off as more freeze- thaw spalling displaced the coatings during the winter. Remember the glaciers: nothing survives the glaciers.

 

The Cure:

BJG prescribed a thorough removal of the existing bleacher coating including hand-grinding at the rusting connections for the bleachers. A new modern traffic coating was then applied in 4 coats. This new coating was terminated with new steel sided walls that were counter flashed and pushed away from the masonry walls to improve drainage and reduce water capillary action invading the still-sound masonry walls. Since the old masonry coatings contained lead and encapsulation of this lead coating was the most cost effective means to re-mediate the unsightly condition of the old masonry walls a synthetic stucco system overlays a majority of the old masonry. The new finish allows the walls to ‘breathe’ and rid themselves of any moisture that becomes trapped the walls. Finally, a durable and decorative ‘ground face’ CMU veneer was placed at the ground level to fend off the daily abuse a baseball park takes. The old wood wind wall was replaced with long-life steel siding and the scorer’s booth now has safe access to a weather proof  and ball-proof-window enclosure. All the materials are intended to be ‘no’ or ‘low’ maintenance for the life of the building.

 

Accessibility:

In addition to the nuts and bolts of creating a water-tight building, IVGID needed the entire  complex of ball field, bathrooms, and playground to be accessible. To this end the entire facility was upgraded  (including the dugouts!) with proper ramps, door sizes, hallways, toilet room layouts and parking lot slopes to meet the most stringent accessibility rules.  A feature of the new ramp system is a ‘battered’ concrete wall  that seems to belong to an older era and blends the big-tree shaded playground with the newly updated (and dry ) Preston Field .

 

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Options:

Option 1
Option 3

It’s all about the roof:

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