Collier Engineering Corporate Office - Nashville, TN
Building Renovation & Site Design

Built-in 1918, the Turner School Building served the Nashville community for over sixty years as a schoolhouse and community meeting space. The building was decommissioned in the 1980s and fell into disrepair as the city planned to demolish the old school and build a new firehouse. During the due diligence period of firehouse planning, a clause in the property deed was discovered. The clause stated the property should be used for an educational facility, or the property would revert to the original family who donated it. So after nearly 20 years of sitting abandoned, Collier Engineering took on the project of restoring the historic building and bringing the site up to current commercial standards.

In 2018, Collier staff began the conceptual planning to turn the historic schoolhouse into the corporate headquarters for our company. As both the owner and project manager, Collier partnered with Earl Swenson Architects (ESA) and Crain Construction to transform the 30,000 square foot building into office, meeting, training, lab, and support spaces. Collier also acted as the engineer of record and general contractor for the site improvements. These included planning and constructing two new water quality bio-retention ponds, new and refurbished parking areas, and landscaping. Our team successfully tackled the challenges of retrofitting a 100-year-old building and site into current code requirements while simultaneously creating an environment that supports our employees and clients. We take great pride in the fact that we were able to save this historic building and give it a new purpose.