• Client

  City of Natchitoches, Louisiana

• Division

  Engineering

• Scope

  Site civil design, sports field programming and design, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering

• Completion

  Fall 2019

In mid-February of 2020, the City of Natchitoches celebrated the grand opening of Parc Natchitoches—a multimillion-dollar sports and recreational facility that has already proven itself an economically beneficial asset for the community.

The new state-of-the-art sports and recreation park is located adjacent to LA Highway 6 leading into the city from Interstate 49. The 100-acre sports complex was designed to accommodate youth sporting tournaments for baseball, soccer, and cross country running as well as Northwestern State intramural sporting events. The park includes a public gathering area, 5-baseball fields in a pinwheel shape containing artificial turf grass infields and natural grass outfields, 4-soccer natural grass fields, covered batting cages, concession stands, pavilions, fishing ponds, and walking trails. A unique feature of the park is Championship Field, built into a naturally occurring topographic depression on the property. It is twenty feet lower than the remaining four fields, creating natural grass amphitheatre style seating on its third and first base lines.

 

 

In 2016, after learning of Fenstermaker’s involvement in the design of the Youngsville Sports Complex, the City of Natchitoches contacted our firm, requesting a response to an outstanding RFQ. Fenstermaker facilitated a swift assembly of the consultant team that was ultimately chosen to perform the work in Natchitoches. WHLC Architecture of Baton Rouge, LA served as the prime consultant for the project.

Fenstermaker, lead sub-consultant for the effort, served as the engineers of record, providing the civil design, sports field programming and utility design, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, and cost estimating for the project. Fenstermaker was proud to serve in an instrumental capacity throughout the development of the project’s master plan which was based on extensive outreach into the local sporting community for needs assessment.

Fenstermaker performed all wetland delineations on the project along with the required Section 404 permitting in conjunction with the Vicksburg District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Fenstermaker coordinated all required permitting with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of Health and Hospitals. Fenstermaker also provided the project’s construction administration, review of all submittals including sports specialty submittals, on-site daily construction inspection as well as the orchestration of all required construction testing. The project was completed in the Fall of 2019.

---