Gravlee Fitness Center: Exercising Good Design

Portico Birmingham Magazine

September 2004

IT'S NOT A LARGE BUILDING. And it isn't the sort of use-a fitness center-that aspires to importance. But the new home for Gravlee Fitness Center just off the main street in Crestline Village has brought a nice, new dimension to its neighborhood.

A gabled front steps forward to the Dexter Avenue sidewalk, adhering to Mountain Brook's urban design guidelines to reinforce the 'village' character in its three distinctive villages. Clad in a soft red, textured brick, it resembles the straight-forward commercial structures that still line many a Main Street, down to the panel for the sign in contrasting basketweave pattern. But surprisingly, right where there might be store windows is a large aluminum overhead garage door that suggests "fire station."

And the surprises continue. To the left, the tall structure opens up with a steeply pitched roof and deep overhang supported by massive pine piers fitted with steel connectors. Around this corner a deck extends all the way back to a rear deck leading down to the landscaped parking area. Three more overhead doors face the side garden. Inside? A wide-open 3,000 sq. ft. space soars to nearly 30 feet and features exposed wood trusses, a large exposed metal duct, and bright metal ceiling fans.

This is a modest building with a big presence, and it is no accident.

"When I saw this site for sale, I instantly knew what I wanted," says Lee Gravlee who with his wife, Amy, owns and operates the business. "Miller Gorrie's mother told me about early Crestline when it had unpaved streets, a grocery store, and a gas station. I wanted something that feels like a corner grocery store, a place that would be for our clients but also for the community." An article in PORTICO about a lake house designed for a Birmingham family led him to architect Alex Krumdieck. "He took my idea and just exploded it," Lee adds-in a good way.

The lake house has a rustic character and is fitted with personal items that enrich it, and the Gravlees had already started gathering items to give their new building an interesting turn. "We took the idea and created the interior volume that would permit a second floor in the future if needed," says Krumdieck. "We also simplified the interior and gave it a more clean-lined, contemporary look. As the side deck evolved, it made sense to use more overhead doors that allow the space to open up visually and literally."

Details matter, maybe even more in a small building. The architects specified a corrugated metal roof with finely-cut exposed rafter tails. To break down the exterior height and get more texture they used 10-inch lap siding on the lower portion and a 4-inch lap above, repeating this pattern in horizontal fir planks on the long interior wall, all carefully crafted by Golden & Associates Construction.

The social role of the Gravlee Fitness Center is not an afterthought. A canopy across the front provides shelter, and a sink salvaged from the little house that stood on the site has been mounted outside and fitted as a water fountain as a courtesy to runners and cyclists. There are places to sit and linger and landscaping that will turn into a garden spot as it matures. "When it rains the corrugated roof turns the water into rivulets that fall onto the side deck and garden," Lee says. "It will be nice to see and hear when people are on the equipment."

A very good exercise this is, too, between clients with strong ideas and dsigners who gave them shape. It might have been too quaint, too country store. Instead, it's fresh and full of light and energy.

Building Well

Lee Gravlee compliments the crew who worked on his new building. In turn, Lance Cockerham, project manager for Golden & Associates Construction, has good things to say about people who want to do things right.

"I enjoy doing a lot of detail work. That's what makes it fun. A lot of people just want to 'blow and go,' but Golden & Associates likes to take on projects others don't like to fool with. That's why I like working on their projects."

The most challenging part of the project? "Those big wooden posts and beams. The biggest ones you normally find are 6 x 6's that stop at 16 feet long. These started as 12 x 15-inch heart pine timbers salvaged from an 1890's warehouse in North Carolina, black from use. We had to cut them down to 9 x 11 for the inside and a little smaller outside. You can't do that with a circular saw, and a chainsaw would have butchered them. Our framer, Jim Dick, came up with a 16-inch circular saw once used in a sawmill that did the job."

Some of the other points of building well on this project: The long, high interior wall opposite the row of overhead doors was framed in 6 x 6's so true you can sight down it from the balcony and see nary a bulge; the slim, shaped rafter tails turn the roof overhang above the deck into a delight for the eye; and all deck and railing components are held together not with nails but with stainless steel screws.