CHOCTAW CENTRAL ARENA &FOOTBALL FIELD

The Project

The arena and football field were only a portion of a larger campus design project for Choctaw Central Middle School & High School campus in Philadelphia, MS. I worked directly with the Principal Architect of PryorMorrow in the schematic design through construction document stages of the project. I inherited an existing floor plan and spent the summer and winter breaks developing the project and revising changes based on client feedback.

Approach

The school will be used for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and as a tribal school, we wanted to include as many Choctaw motifs and symbols as possible. Throughout the project we included repeating diamond patterns, beadwork, and other significant traditions as the client specifically requested that people know they were in a tribal school as soon as they entered.

LEVEL FLOOR PLAN (DIMENSIONED)

My first significant task was to consult with vendors and the client to devise a suitable weight room layout for the football team that would be attached to the arena mezzanine level. This started as a sketch and trace paper study, testing out several different layouts for the space. Once a layout was made, I moved to the computer to create a render package for the client to properly convey our design decisions.