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Case Study: Country Club Improvements

Project Introduction

Waynesborough Country Club in Paoli, PA, is a private, nationally recognized club nestled on 200 acres in beautiful Chester County. Established in 1965, it is a family-oriented club with a mission to provide premier facilities and dynamic amenities that are continuously improved for member enjoyment.

The renovations at Waynesborough Country Club started with a phone call to replace a swimming pool. A few years later, this country club is getting a $5M revamp of their pool area, clubhouse, and surrounding social spaces with plans to engage existing members and attract new ones.

While COVID shut down this construction site for close to 8 weeks, the use of a drone and a focus on getting things right the first time helped Waynesborough open the pool in time for summer.

Before (right) and after (left)
Aerial photography credit: W.S. Cumby (Contractor)

Challenges and Solutions

One of the biggest hurdles during construction was providing accurate survey stakeout to connect the sky bridge, a huge one piece structure, from the 2nd story of the new clubhouse to a sidewalk ramp. The connection required precision and extreme accuracy to ensure it fit perfectly between the columns on the building and the bolts on the sidewalk. In the simplest terms, we had to make sure they could fit a 1/2″ hole from 80′ away.

Construction of the sky bridge, linking the new building to the sidewalk path

Communication = Accuracy

On a project like this with many subcontractors in the midst of a pandemic, communication can be difficult. We were getting a lot of different information and sometimes things can get lost in translation with emails and differing terminology. Getting our surveyors on-site to complete the calculations and meet face-to-face with the contractor, helped us to provide the right information and stakeout needed to properly construct the sky bridge. After that, it all fell into place.

“My country club projects require the difficult task of managing multiple stakeholders and constant programming changes. I can always rely on Nave Newell to stay a step ahead of our needs. They understand the critical path to obtain approvals and they proactively communicate options to the team through weekly updates. Their leaders have the experience and professionalism to deal with the intricacies of the land development process that are integral to the success of many projects.”

Carter M. Young
Construction Manager/Owner’s Representative

Faster, easier, and safer building height certification with a drone

Before opening, the Township required a building elevation certificate to secure an occupancy permit and it wasn’t as simple as finding the highest peak on the roof. Our surveyors needed to identify the elevation at the ½ gable or mid-gable location – more specifically we had to certify that the half gable was less than 27 feet from the existing ground elevation around the building. Conventionally, this would have been very difficult shooting from the ground with a slanted roof. Flying our drone, we were able to pull elevations all the way around the building at ground level, edge of roof, top of roof, and quickly and easily calculate the required information from our aerial survey.

Download a PDF of the Case Study or visit the Waynesborough Country Club website.

Project Team

Owner’s Representative: Carter Young

Architect: Blackney Hayes Architects

Contractor: W.S. Cumby

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