The American Council of Engineering Companies of New Jersey (ACECNJ) has honored LAN Associates with another Distinguished Project Award at the organization’s annual Engineering Excellence Awards banquet, held on March 11th. The award was received for LAN’s design of a multi-sport field at Waldwick High School.
Limited space, complicated land use issues, a tight project schedule, and a goal to maximize field size and extend available playtime were the challenges at hand when LAN was retained to revamp the athletic facilities at the Bergen County public school. The project required a creative, meticulously calculated approach to designing a multi-sport solution on roughly five acres that could support sustained use by students and sports teams.
LAN’s civil engineers, land use professionals, land surveyors, and construction administrators designed an artificial turf field that includes a full-sized baseball field, a multi-sport field for soccer, football, lacrosse, and field hockey, and dedicated spaces for field events such as shot put and discus. The fully lit artificial turf field provides greater durability and weather resistance, significantly increasing available playtime and resolving the long-standing issue of the school having to juggle scheduled practices and games.
Before the fields could be designed, LAN’s land use team needed to address challenges posed by the site’s adjacency to NJDEP-regulated waterways and flood hazard zones. This required an investigation to identify the applicable regulatory restrictions. The team surveyed the area and worked with the relevant authorities to provide the largest feasible field. At the same time, LAN’s wetland scientist delineated the site and ruled out the presence of wetlands that would interfere with the ambitions of the project.
Following these efforts, the design team provided an expansive plan that improved the area’s entrance and visitor experience while also creating a multi-sport field. Public-facing access points were enhanced, including a new walkway leading to a post-game pavilion. Spectators are guided to new bleachers that wrap around home plate, along with a new press box and restroom facilities, so all amenities are conveniently close at hand. New dugouts, bullpens, batting cages, scoreboards, lighting, and other necessary improvements were also designed.
This year’s awards ceremony was held at Forsgate Country Club in Monroe, New Jersey. In 2025, LAN won the distinguished award for the design of the sanitary sewer system at Island Beach State Park.
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