Old habits

Circa 1860 convent expanded, renovated in Nashville

By Sam Barnes

During a $37.5 million expansion, 200-plus Catholic nuns, many of whom had taken vows of solitude, were left with little choice but to bend the rules and allow contractors onto their cloistered Nashville campus.

The expansion would ultimately add 134,000 sq. ft. to the convent with a new east wing and chapel, as well as renovate the existing 146-year-old convent, which is operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia. The project was finished this summer.

To keep contractors from working near the nuns, the owner formed a three-person liaison committee to communicate its objectives and coordinate scheduling with design-build contractor Hardaway Construction of Nashville.

Trey Lee, senior project manager with Hardaway, was involved in the project from the beginning of the design phase.

"We gave the owner about six different architects to choose from, with oversight provided by our in-house design-build staff," Lee said. The owner eventually chose Fowlkes & Associates Architects of Nashville, which operated under the supervision of Hardaway.

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"In the early going we did surveys and took a lot of measurements because there were no plans available of the existing structure," Lee said. "Then we got into a space-planning phase, where we had to observe them to get a feel for their daily religious life and how it revolves around the chapel and the building.

"It took a while for them to understand that men had to be in the building," he added. "This convent is essentially cut off from the outside world, and it's been that way for more than 100 years."

Lee said it took a month or two of coaxing to get the older nuns to understand what they had to do.

"They would have to announce that we would be in the building and we could only go at certain times," he said. "I met with a group of sisters once a week and they acted as the construction liaisons. One was the lead, and they made decisions by committee. It worked slow, but well. Once they made a decision they stuck with it."

One of the nuns' unique design requirements was the construction of 12-ft.-wide hallways, instead of the typical 8 ft. The width was required throughout all new structures and the existing convent to allow for the passage of several nuns without the risk of contact.

"The initial phase, for the construction of the east wing, began in 2003," Lee said. "At 120,000 sq. ft., the east wing is by far the larger of the two new structures."

The four-story east wing sits on caissons and is a concrete structure with cast-in-place, post-tensioned elevated slabs. Slabs measuring 8 in. thick were necessary to accommodate the column spans needed for the wide hallways.

The exterior skin of the east wing is made of brick, precast concrete and windows, all of which match the skin of the existing convent. Now complete, the wing houses a dining hall and kitchen, infirmary, library and 99 living-quarter "cells."

At the same time, the contractor had to lay the groundwork for the campus' new infrastructure, since virtually nothing was up to code.

"We built a central powerhouse because the electrical, fire sprinkler, mechanical and plumbing had to accommodate the entire campus," Lee said. "As we brought in additional things during future phases, we just tied into it."

Construction of the 14,000-sq.-ft. chapel during phase two began while the east wing was still under construction. The chapel rests on a caisson foundation and has a structural steel frame and steel trusses to support 42-ft. ceiling heights.

"The steel columns are 10 in. diameter and 40 ft. tall," Lee said.

After the east wing was completed, the nuns moved into the new wing to allow the contractor to begin renovating the convent.

While working in the convent, the contractor encountered severely outdated mechanical and electrical systems dating back to the 1930s and 1940s.

"Put simply, the electrical system was a 'knob and tube' configuration, which was common during the very beginnings of electrical power," Lee said. "There was also no air conditioning system and no fire alarm or fire sprinkler." The heating system consisted of a boiler installed in 1950s.

"So essentially they were living in a wood structure with no fire alarm and an antiquated electrical system," Lee said. "Add to that a lot of corridors with dead ends and you have a codes nightmare."

During the renovation, the contractor added HVAC throughout the structure (with a drop ceiling made possible by the existing 14-ft. ceiling heights), new electrical wiring, fire sprinkler system and a new stairwell for life safety. Workers also closed in some of the existing stairwells and completely gutted and rebuilt all of the bathrooms, added new paint and floors and refinished existing hardwood floors.

"On the lower floors we added guest sleeping quarters and completely upgraded existing cells, changed out windows and put in insulated historically designed windows to match existing windows," Lee said.

In some locations, the crews had to replace deteriorated brick walls - consisting of brick stacked several layers thick - with steel columns and beams.

"In one area on the north side of the building, next to an existing elevator, water had washed the mortar away," Lee said. "We essentially shored up all the floors from the ground up and took out small sections of brick at a time. We also cut in new door openings in some locations, so we'd have to add columns and re-support the brick."

Outside the existing structure, crews performed cleaning and tuck-pointing of the brick.

Lee said some quick thinking was necessary about two months before the original completion date.

"The nuns asked that the project be completed a month early," he said. "They have internal elections for replacing positions inside the convent in June and they requested that the project be finished by that date. Until that point, we were on track to finish in July."

To accomplish the task, the contractor had to get special permission from the nuns to work on Sunday.

"We had to work seven days a week from that point on," Lee added.