SEPTEMBER 2003

Twenty years ago the safety commission told us to make our playgrounds safer. Today's playground manufacturers and designers are finally showing us how to make those safe playgrounds fun and, more significantly, fun for children of all abilities. Playgrounds are once again swinging into action with more active components, more thrill factor and more creative fun for everyone.

Think your zero-depth entry and giant water slide put your pool on the cusp of cool? Think again. The best and most entertaining facilities today are more than just a collection of fun water features. They're well planned fantasylands with a central theme carried throughout. We'll explain how to create a winning motif for your facility, how to design your park, pick the right play components and much more.

What a difference a little lighting makes. With the right setup, you can transform the look and feel of any space, from a gym to natatorium to locker room. We examine how you can maximize customer comfort by using light and controlling noise and sound. From preconstruction tips to fixing problem areas in your current facility, we'll help you design right for sound and light.

Just as proper diet and exercise help human beings live healthier lives, preventive maintenance is the key to getting the most out of exercise equipment. Preventing service calls and keeping exercise machines running with minimal downtime requires more than just wiping down equipment and reporting malfunctioning units to your technician. A regular program of care truly can extend the life of your equipment and save money in the long run.

When selecting the right restroom and locker room accessories, it's important to first analyze the usage factors of these environments and your facility's maintenance practices. This will assist in reducing future replacement costs and ongoing custodial expense. The overall goal is to make sure you provide attractive, functional facilities for your patrons at the very lowest cost.

Builders and planners of public sports and recreation facilities should be aware of the increasing popularity of a national voluntary movement to apply stringent "green building" standards to new construction and major renovation projects.

With academic degrees and years of experience in exercise physiology or recreation, unique men and women bring their expertise to sailors serving at sea. They are civilian Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) professionals, affectionately known as "Fit Bosses" or "Fun Bosses." Their mission: to help create a culture of fitness and personnel readiness in the fleet by improving morale and reducing the stress of deployment.

Although a new YMCA hasn't been built in Manhattan for 70 years, the new $35 million McBurney Y has made the wait well worth it. The 67,000-square-foot McBurney Y features a health and wellness center, paddleball courts, and a perimeter running track, but the focal point of the facility is the 7,000-square-foot natatorium.

The context is an urban park in Brooklyn. Paved in asphalt and lined by chain-link fence, the site is surrounded by a housing development known as the Williamsburg Houses, one of the best examples of 1930s modernism.

Enter the client: the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which had federal funds and an ambitious program to build high-quality community centers for the recreational, educational and cultural needs of public housing communities throughout New York City. When NYCHA decided to renovate the 24 low-scale residences, it sponsored a design competition for a new recreational facility of outstanding caliber to complement the noteworthy buildings.

It's not every day that a new type of park is born. In this case it's an Aqua Park—not to be confused with a waterpark or splash play area, but more like a water playground of sorts.

Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and The Coca-Cola Company are the proud parents of Caylana's Castle Cove, the 20,000-square-foot aqua park, which offers families a chance to play and test their skills on a series of challenges from floating rock-climbing walls to aquatic trampolines.