Birmingham Magazine
September 1998
"THE GURU OF GRASS"
Alan Blalock's expertise on fields of play extends from Legion Field to Turkey and Argentina.
By Niki Sepsas

     We are often reminded of how prayers are sometimes answered in the strangest ways.  Such was the case for Alan Blalock, president of Blalock Design Associates, when he offered his heavenly request prior to the first of the Olympic soccer matches hosted by the Magic City in July, 1996.
     Blalock had been appointed the field architect and his company had been awarded the contract for the redesign of Legion Field from artificial turf to natural grass for the games.  He and his team of specialists had logged countless hours in the planning, preparation, and reconstruction of the field's surface to ensure that it would be in top shape when the world's premier soccer teams met in competition.  Soil samples had been studied.  Percolation tests were run, various types of turf were analyzed and the moisture content of the ground was carefully monitored.  The field had been painstakingly transformed, manicured, groomed, and, upon completion, appeared immaculate as the first fans streamed through the turnstiles in anticipation of the historic event.  The eyes of the world would be focused on Birmingham as the host city for the event.  Blalock silently whispered a prayer that the weather would cooperate and all would go well.
     Those who attended the event may recall the monsoon rains that fell just prior to the game.  "It didn't seem like it at the time," Blalock smiles, "but that storm was our prayer being answered.  The surface held up so well that an official who had officiated soccer matches for years all over the world told me that he had never seen a field drain so well.  Even Bruce Arena, the coach of the U.S. team, called it 'incredible'.  We are very grateful to the City of Birmingham for giving us that opportunity to showcase what we do.  That project really put us on the map."
     The map to which Blalock refers is not local in nature.  Since opening his golf course and sports turf design business in the Birmingham area in 1978, Blalock's architects, planners, and design specialists have designed more than 260 athletic fields throughout the Southeast.  In addition to the Legion Field project, the company's most prominent accomplishments include the Hoover Met (which in 1997 was designated the Minor League Ballpark of the Year);  Hank Aaron Memorial Stadium in Mobile;  soccer fields at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia Kentucky; and the soccer field at the Birmingham Southern College, site of the 1997 and 1998 NAIA soccer championships.
     Blalock's second venture, Blalock Golf Architects, has prepared the master plans for 12 major golf course communities including the Old Overton Club and the Eagle Point Golf Club in Birmingham;  the original master plan and feasibility study for the Greystone gold community off U.S. Highway 280;  and resort master plans and championship gold courses in Enterprise and Auburn, Alabama, and Eddyville, Kentucky.
     Blalock recounts the winding road he traveled which led him into such a specialized career niche and brought him back to Birmingham.  Born in Georgia, Blalock's family moved to the Magic City when he was a youngster.  After graduating from Shades Valley High School, he was attending the University of Georgia and playing football for Coach Vince Dooley when he was sidelined by an injury and forced to open other career doors.  Enrolling in Georgia's School of Business, he decided one morning to visit every academic building on the campus at Athens.  The eighth building he walked into was the School of Landscape Architecture and his mind was made up immediately.  Landscape architecture would be his field.  Preferring outdoor to indoor construction, he chose to specialize in the design of sports fields, gold courses, and golf communities.
     Working after graduation for a Jacksonville, Florida architectural firm, his first assignment was in 1971 on a golf course community being designed in what was then an undeveloped stretch on Highway 280 in Shelby County, Alabama.  The area came to be known as Inverness.
     While working on the Inverness project that year, Blalock fell in love with golf.  Two years later he opened his own design business in Athens, Georgia.  In 1977, while visiting Birmingham to compete in the Vulcan Run, he fell in love again, this time with Linda, the woman he would later marry.  It was love at first sight.  He decided to move his business to Birmingham and marry Linda.
     "I love our business location in the downtown area," Blalock explains referring to the redesigned Wheelock Building on Second Avenue North and 22nd Street.  "The building has a number of offices and several loft apartments.  We had several opportunities to move but we are very happy downtown."
     While Blalock is pleased with his downtown business location, he chose to look south to Shelby County for a home that would allow him to pursue his other great passion - horses.  "I'm a cowboy at heart," he states.  "I enjoy having a home where my wife can enjoy herb gardening and she and I and our son can ride horses."
     Blalock's preference for the sound of rustling leaves in a forest over the rustling of papers on a desk has led him to incorporate a very unique method of site inspection into his business.  In designing the layout of sports projects, he is frequently called upon to visit undeveloped wooded areas which, under his guidance, will be transformed into golf courses, golf course communities, ball parks, and soccer fields.  Rather than opting for the traditional four-by-four for his off road forays into the bush, he chooses to saddle his favorite horse, Sonny Steele, for the job.
     "Sonny is named after the rodeo cowboy in the Robert Redford movie The Electric Horseman," he relates.  "He takes me everywhere I go, and, in many cases, where an off road vehicle couldn't take me.  When there is a stream to cross, for example, I don't have to go miles around like I would in a truck.  We go right across together.  And there's nothing like the peace and quiet of being in the woods.  We've seen deer, turkey, and even the occasional bobcat on our travels,"  Blalock admits, however, to a fondness for at least some of the modern tools of the office.  "I put my rolled up plans in the rifle scabbard and my camera, telephone, and binoculars in my saddlebags", he smiles.  "I have to have some of the twentieth century with me."

     As much as he enjoys Sonny Steele's company on property rides, Blalock finds that he is unable to use his favorite horse on many of the site inspections he is doing these days.  He returned in May from Argentina where he met with representatives of the Argentine Soccer Association (the Argentinian equivalent of our NFL) on the development of a new training facility for Argentina's World Cup and Olympic Soccer teams.  During the course of his meetings with the Argentinian officials, the size and scope of the project increased to seven soccer fields which will be ready for play in 1999.  Blalock also agreed to redesign an 18 hole championship course at Buenos Aires Country Club.

     "It's an honor and a privilege to work on this project," Blalock states.  "We plan to develop the finest soccer fields in the world for the Asociacion del Futbol Argentino."
     The Blalock name is also known in other parts of the world.  Earlier this year Blalock Design Associates was awarded the contract to design the playing surface and supervise construction of the 40,000 seat soccer stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.  The stadium, which will be the first of its kind in Turkey, is scheduled to open next spring.  Since Blalock may decide to heat the soccer field, he added Ross Kurcab, the director of field operations for the Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos, to the design team on the Istanbul project.  Blalock has also been asked to look into the design of a baseball stadium, curiously enough, in the south of France, and a soccer field in Germany.
     Blalock points to several reasons for the success his company has enjoyed and his position as the "guru of grass."  "We have a great team of professionals working here," he states.  "Each shares in the success we have achieved.  We have also benefited from the international exposure we got from the Legion Field soccer events.  Our work for Preston Goldfarb, the men's soccer coach at Birmingham Southern College, also helped us internationally.  We were the consultants for their soccer field which will host the NAIA championships this year.  We've done a great deal of work for Preston, including two field renovations.  It always helps when a satisfied client speaks of your abilities in international circles."
     Another major reason for the firm's success in Blalock's hands-on philosophy of project management.  The technology of golf course and sports field design takes in varied scientific disciplines ranging from soil temperatures and drainage capabilities to sand particle size, sod properties, and sunlight angles.  For a golf course or sports field to be truly successful, the facility planner must remain personally involved in all phases of the project through to completion.  This is where Blalock's commitment to excellence is most evident.  Even on projects where he supplies the design and master plan and other specialists are called in for various phases of the construction, Blalock professionals closely monitor the project from beginning to end.
     "We need to remain involved throughout the life of the project," Blalock explains.  "A contractor, for example, might choose to use a different kind of sand or additives which can affect the drainage capabilities of the turf.  Argentina does not have type of sand necessary for the fields we'll be working on down there.  We'll be bringing in a better grade of sand from Uruguay.  And the sod we're using for the fields in Istanbul will be flown in from Holland or south Georgia.  Some things work better in different areas from a design standpoint.  That's why these international projects have been so valuable for us as a company.  When we travel somewhere in the world we bring to them our technology but we also take from them some wonderful ideas.  It's this blend of technology and ideas that produces success."