NOVEMBER 2005

Packed with scores of ideas, this reference tool was designed to help recreation facilities tackle their most persistent and universal challenges, covering all the big basic questions. Consider it an industry guidebook of sorts; chock full of straightforward, problem-solving tips on everything from aquatic attractions, food service and guest amenities to site furnishings, outdoor restrooms and playground surfacing, and many major recreation challenges in between.

Landscape architecture, often the ho-hum wallflower of facility focus, is growing beyond its dutiful splashes of color and regimented, predictable patterns. Gardens are becoming the star attraction. Find out how many cutting-edge parks and recreational facilities are using interactive and stunning landscape features to bring in record-breaking numbers of visitors and revenues alike.

It takes more than nice equipment to make health facilities successful. The ones that do well mix the right ingredients—equipment, amenities, staffing and programming—to build a sustainable, satisfied customer base. Take a look at some clubs that have used this model and what other facilities can learn from them.

Thought to be a fad in the late 1970s and early 1980s, dance exercise (later to be known as aerobics) has become a mainstay of fitness programming, even as some industry experts question the value of it. Since its inception, when disco was king, aerobics has transformed the industry. Now under the category title of group exercise, aerobics and other forms of group activity continue to evolve, addressing the needs of a more diverse membership and older population.

Many times, so much energy is put into the funding, design and build of a skatepark that frequently key players in the game forget about planning for the day-to-day operation.

The "art" of creating special human places has been around a few thousand years, but the practice has never been more important than now in the quest for the ultimate guest experience. Believe it or not, your facility is being judged by every ticket-holder, vendor, maintenance worker and employee in the building. The "facility experience" has become such an important part of our culture that future consumer and financial success depends on it.

While Mark Twain once described golf as a good walk spoiled, almost nothing can spoil a good round of golf faster than a foul restroom out on the course. Such remote restrooms often are handicapped by their own isolation, sometimes situated without any access to sewer, water or electricity. Very much, well, in the rough.

This summer the kids of Laredo, Texas, were busy making movies and building robots, thanks to Tech Rec, otherwise known as the Lamar Bruni Vergara Technological Recreation Center. Only the second such facility in the country, this inner-city recreation center is devoted almost entirely to tech programs, from filmmaking and robotics to computer graphic design, Web-site development, and getting the most out of the Internet.