By Brian Hoover, Editor
Byrom-Davey, Inc. Breaks Ground on $5.25 Million Arnhold Tennis Center at University of California, Santa Barbara
T
he University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has a men’s and women’s NCAA Division 1 tennis program that has brought them attention on a national level for some time. The UCSB Men’s tennis team has won five straight Big West Tournament championships, while the UCSB Women’s tennis team had back to back Big West Tournament titles in 2016 and 2017. The men’s team also has Joseph Guillin, one of the best single players on the West Coast and the entire nation. Guillin was the first UCSB Gaucho to win the Sectional Championship, beating out top-ranked players from UCLA, USC, San Diego State and University of Arizona. During the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, John Arnhold began brainstorming the idea of building a new, first-rate tennis stadium for the UCSB men’s and women’s tennis program. Arnhold was admiring the USC Trojan’s Marks Tennis Stadium and thought it would be great to have a facility of that caliber for the tennis athletes at UCSB.
20
The Arnhold’s have a history with UCSB that goes beyond being philanthropists that donate to the Gaucho’s academic and athletic programs. John Arnhold is a UCSB alumnus, former chairman of the board for the International Tennis Hall of Fame, voluntary coach for the UCSB women’s team, and trustee with the UC Santa Barbara Foundation. After careful consideration, research, and working out details with the director of athletics, John McCutcheon, John and his wife, Jody, put up one of the largest donations ever made to UCSB athletics to build a new tennis stadium. UCSB’s new $5.25 million “Arnhold Tennis Center” broke ground this past October and will include eight courts and an 1,860 square-foot team building complete with locker rooms, a team lounge and plenty of storage. The new UCSB tennis stadium is a design/build project and was awarded to Byrom-Davey, Inc. (Byrom-Davey) out of San Diego. Byrom Davey is a general contractor specializing in the
LAN D SC AP E CO NS T RU CTI O N / 2 0 2 0
construction of sports facilities. Byrom-Davey began construction on Arnhold Tennis Center on Oct. 2020 and is expected to be completed by June 2021. Eric Jennings, Sr. is the vice president overseeing business development and operations at Byrom-Davey for the past 12 years. Jennings has worked closely with John McCutcheon, director of athletics at UCSB. “Physical construction began with the demolition of six of the existing tennis courts at the former Rob Gym Courts. Court 7 and 8 were preserved for resurfacing, which allows for eight courts on the newly designed Arnhold Tennis Center,” says Jennings. “We discovered some very minor asbestos trace during the demolition process, but that was remediated quickly and without any issues.”
C A LCO N T R AC TO R .CO M