Greenwich Country Day School

A regulation track must be flat. The Stanwich Road property was not.

When a donor came forward with a clear and time-sensitive goal to build a quarter-mile track and field at Greenwich Country Day School, the school moved quickly. Several earlier site options were evaluated and set aside due to environmental limitations and grading complexity. The final location, at the former St. Agnes parish campus, offered the open land needed but required substantial earthwork to get there. Retaining walls reaching roughly fifteen feet in height were required in one area. In other corners of the site, grades were lowered significantly or filled to balance elevations. The precision required for track construction left almost no margin for error.

Redniss & Mead led grading design and wetlands permitting for the project, working alongside Michele Cronin, AICP on Planning and Zoning coordination and William Kenny Associates on landscape and mitigation measures.

One detail worth noting: although the field is currently natural turf, the drainage infrastructure was engineered from the outset to accommodate future conversion to synthetic turf. In Greenwich, synthetic turf is classified as an impervious surface, which significantly increases stormwater design requirements. Building to that standard now protects the school from having to reconstruct infrastructure later when program needs evolve.