Greenhouse Ministries
Owner: Greenhouse Ministries
Location: 307 South Academy Street, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Project Scope: New 25,000-square office and transitional housing facility
Located in the heart of downtown Murfreesboro, this 25,000-square-foot, two-story, wood-framed structure includes corporate offices, counseling offices, and 18 transitional housing apartments.
Greenhouse Ministries provides food, clothing, furniture, toiletries, bicycles, and other basic necessities, as well as adult counseling and education in the form of computer classes, GED tutoring, budgeting, sewing, and literacy classes.
The construction site was very tight, making the storage of construction materials and equipment a challenge. Permitting required the installation of a new pervious concrete parking lot in order to meet the City’s stormwater design requirements. Continuous envelope building perimeter insulation was also necessary to adhere to the new national energy code.
The Dow Smith Team worked with Greenhouse Ministries and their design consultants, Quirk Designs, for two years to value-engineer the project and to help raise funds to keep it within budget.
Andrea Fall served as project manager and Jel Tellez was the project superintendent. The project took 11 months to complete.
Watch the video below to view a timelapse of the construction process.
After growing up in Washington State and working construction for most of his life, Joel Tellez wound up in Smyrna, where he became a superintendent for Olympian Construction. One day, he was sitting in the pickup line at Thurman Francis Arts Academy in his work truck when Dow Smith—who also had kids at the school—came over and struck up a conversation. A few months later, Joel was working at DSC. Last week, he celebrated 20 years with the company.