Caldwell Youth Sports Complex, Hammond, Indiana

The former Lee Caldwell Elementary School site is the location of the Hammond Caldwell Youth Sports Complex. DLZ worked closely with the mayor’s office, the parks department, and the department of engineering for the project. Thereby, developed a master plan which consolidated the current Wedgewood Softball and Hessville Little leagues. The complex consists of one girls’ softball field, one boys’ baseball field, and a third, auxiliary field for softball or baseball games, practices, or T-ball. In addition, all fields include sports lighting and an automatic turf irrigation system.

To begin with, the master plan alternatives addressed the functional arrangement of uses with consideration to the surrounding neighborhood context. DLZ addressed site inventory and analysis, site access and traffic circulation, conceptual design alternatives, and refinement of the final site master plan.

Later, DLZ was retained to provide detailed design and construction bid documents for the Caldwell Youth Sports Complex. Low planting berms buffer the 150 parking spaces on the surrounding streets. Coupled with, pedestrian entrances and vehicular drop-off/pick-up zone provide access to all playing fields and site uses. Also, all uses throughout the complex are fully accessible. In addition, other features of the complex include a paved recreational path, decorative fences and brick columns, shelter structures, two-story press box, restrooms building, a single-story concessions building, a small maintenance building, landscaped ‘common’ space, and a playground.