DynaDome — Caine Halter Family YMCA
- Facility Name: Caine Halter Family YMCA
- City, State: Greenville, S.C.
- Cost of Project: $1.3 million
- Type of Facility: Aquatic
- Architectural Firm: McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture
- Lead Architect Name: K.J. Jacobs
- Status: Complete
- Square Footage: Approx. 10,000
- Number of Floors: 1
- % of reader vote: 34.38%
At YMCA of Greenville's Caine Halter Family YMCA location, its air-inflated structure was reaching the end of its useful life. DynaDome's solution—the capability to convert indoor to outdoor in less than 40 seconds—was the perfect fit for the facility’s needs. With the addition of minimal mechanical equipment and lighting, its outdoor pool was converted to a year-round indoor/outdoor facility ready for any event. The project was completed in December 2023; from start to finish, it took about three months, with concrete/site work starting in October.
SEPCO — Cramer Hill Park
- Facility Name: Cramer Hill Park
- City, State: Camden, N.J.
- Type of Facility: Community Park
- Architectural Firm: CDM Smith
- Lead Architect Name: Zachary Barrett
- Status: Complete
- Square Footage: 62 acres
Cramer Hill Waterfront Park in Camden, N.J., is a remarkable example of how urban spaces can be revitalized to benefit local communities. Built on the site of the former Harrison Avenue landfill, the 62-acre park now features a range of amenities, including walking and biking trails, a fishing pier, a kayak launch, picnic areas, a playground, and observation points offering views of the Delaware River, Petty’s Island, and the Philadelphia skyline. A key feature of the park is the integration of solar lighting, which was part of a broader strategy to ensure the park is both sustainable and accessible to the community. The solar lights are strategically placed in areas such as parking lots, pathways, the playground, and the fishing pier. SEPCO worked directly with an engineering firm to ensure the lights met the project's requirements while providing the community with safety and security. The SolarViper solar lighting systems illuminate critical areas like parking lots, the playground, the fishing area, and along pathways. This sustainable lighting solution reduces the park's carbon footprint by relying on renewable energy and significantly cuts operational costs, allowing the park to allocate resources to other community-focused initiatives.
Wooster Products — Mill Ridge Park
- Facility Name: Mill Ridge Park
- City, State: Antioch, Tenn.
- Cost of Project: $250,000 Type of Facility: interactive musical art display featuring Wooster non-slip nosings — located within nature preserve
- Architectural Firm: Daily tous les jours
- Lead Architect Name: Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat
- Status: Complete
- Square Footage: 600
- Number of Floors: 1
Materials used in the construction of outdoor art installations must be tough, durable, and able to withstand wide temperature fluctuations. It helps if they are low-maintenance or, better yet, maintenance-free. Wooster Products recently supplied its Spectra® non-slip stair nosings for an interactive, musically themed art installation housed in Mill Ridge Park near Nashville, Tenn. Spectra® was selected among several other alternative materials due to its non-slip, maintenance-free exterior that maintains its color throughout its long service life.
When stepped on, the nosings trigger music to be played in adjacent speakers housed within bollards. Spaced apart like the lines for a marching band and leading foot traffic into the area, the strips circle each bollard to form an interactive path. Multiple people step on the strips to cue sounds, rhythms, and lights that blend to form something new, using the energy from everyone to create a masterpiece. Park organizers hope the installation will bring people together through music with no language required.
Wichita Park & Recreation — WebTrac App
Most park and recreation projects have a cost. The Wichita Park and Rec Mobile app delivered a return of $30,000 by addressing a single issue in one of the city’s many parks: eliminating paper tickets. That’s just the beginning. With more than 2,400 app downloads just months after launching, the native app extension to the department’s Vermont Systems WebTrac solution is having a deep impact on Wichita park patrons:
- Saved $30,000 by eliminating paper tickets
- Jumped into the pool revenue early with the ability to sell memberships 2 months sooner
- Cooled off the summer with instant splash pad notifications
- Streamlined registrations across the board
- Flipped the registration device ratio from 65% desktop/35% mobile to 65% mobile/35% desktop.