Lighthouse Christian Preschool

Project: Lighthouse Christian Preschool
Owner: Lighthouse Christian School
Architect: DA|AD Architect Firm
Contractor: Hardaway Construction
Location: Antioch, TN
Completion: September 2010

Description: Replacement Building

Scope:

Lighthouse Tower & Indoor Playground

Summary: Probably the most dramatic image from the 2010 floods in Nashville, Tennessee was that of a school building floating down the I-24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XyRNt2Uur8. That school building was a part of Lighthouse Christian School, which had 8 of its 18 buildings damaged beyond repair and the worst hit was the preschool that was housed in portable trailers one of which is featured in the video.

Despite their own personal setbacks, Brian Sweatt (school administrator) and his wife Barbara worked hard after the flood to provide shelter, food, water, clothing, counseling and other services to more than 200 families in the local community. At the same time, the Lighthouse preschool was preparing to close due to financial difficulty. That's when producers from ABC came to Nashville to look for a worthy project for their popular television show "Extreme Makeover." They narrowed their search to five potential recipients and eventually chose the Lighthouse Christian Preschool. With the help and guidance of LP Building Products in Nashville, Hardaway Construction was chosen as the general contractor and the project was given the name "The Nashville Build."

Steve Ward and Associates was honored to be selected to be a part of the construction team and built and installed the Lighthouse tower and indoor playground. After 6 weeks of design work, a brand new preschool building was constructed in 7 days (September 10 – 17).

Included was a 6,500 square foot preschool building with four classrooms, three bathrooms, a two-story indoor playroom, a kitchen, two offices, a staff lounge, a laundry room, a reception area and an outdoor playground. According to Hardaway, crews worked 106 consecutive hours from the start of construction to the finish. The project involved 3,000 general volunteers and 94 subcontractors and suppliers working on-site for 17,000 man-hours. Lighthouse’s Brian Sweatt wrote in an e-mail to Hardaway, "I could not … imagine in my wildest dreams that in seven days you could take our campus eyesore and turn it into the most beautiful preschool I have ever seen. You have given us the gift of the premier preschool in the state of Tennessee."

For more information, click on the links below:

Lighthouse Christian Preschool

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