Everyone enjoys a day at an indoor water park, at least since 1985 they have been. The first indoor water park in the world was built in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was built in 1985 at the West Edmonton Mall. This water park is called the World Water Park and was 200,000 sq. ft. That's about four times the size of the Country Springs water park in Pewaukee.
The first indoor water park in the U.S. was built in the Wisconsin Dells, at the Polynesian Hotel. It was built in 1989, making the Dells a year-round destination. The tourist season at the Dells had been from Memorial day to Labor day before this indoor water park was built.
Many factors go into the making of a water park. An idea goes through a process with many steps before it becomes a water park. The first step to designing a water park is to choose a water park design firm such as Water Technology, Inc. located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
Secondly, meet with them and talk about budget, the building site, and the theme. Each water park has a unique theme. The theme at the Kalahari is "African". The theme at the Wilderness is "Woods/Forest/Wild".
Next, the building site has to be checked. That includes:
- Bus routes - is there a bus stop at your park? It would be good to have one
- Parking - do you have space for parking?
- Neighborhood - is your park near a neighborhood? It could be so people are close to your park
- Visibility - can your park be seen from out on the road?
- Walking paths - is there a sidewalk at your park so people could walk there?Then, after the building site has been checked and an idea for what will be in the park is made, they will start designing your park using Auto Cad or Revit (two 3D designing computer applications).The Country Springs Hotel was built in 1984. The Country Springs water park was built in 2004 and is 45,000 sq. ft. 166,000 gallons of water fills the park. Over the six years it has been open, they have lost 36,000,000 gallons of water! To make up for the lost water they add about 8,000 gallons of water a day. That's the same amount of water in the hot tub at the water park. The water is kept at a temperature of 85 degrees for the guests' comfort.
Fifth, once everything is designed and finalized, a building company like Neuman Pools will build your park. They are also located in Beaver Dam.
The chemicals used in the water are chlorine and sulfuric acid. When mixed together they make a poison, but when the right amount of each is in the water, it keeps the water clean. The chemicals in the water are tested twice a day to insure the water is clean and safe.
There are two filter types they use. The first one is a sand filter. A sand filter pushes the water through sand. The sand removes anything unwanted in the water. The second type of filter is an iron filter. An iron filter is used to filter out the iron because the water comes from the city. All of the filters at the park are left running constantly.
The water in the lazy river is filtered at 1,500 gallons per minute. It used to be faster, but they had to slow it down because they made a mistake when designing it. Some of the turns were too sharp, so when someone in a tube came to the turn they would just spin in a circle and go nowhere.
The water on the slides is filtered at 3,500 gallons per minute. The way they clean the slides is to get in them and scrub them. They of course do that without water going down. Sometimes they like to turn the water on while someone is cleaning to have a little fun and wash them down.
As you can see many factors go into the making and maintaining of an indoor water park. Most people probably don't even think about that while they're flying down a slide, lounging on a lazy river, or riding the waves of a wave pool.
Narrative
I think this project, for the most part, went well. There were some things I liked about this project. First, I liked working with a partner. My last project was on my own. Also, I liked going to Beaver Dam to talk with the Water Technology people and I liked going to Country Springs and getting a tour of the maintenance rooms. I also disliked some things during this project. The only thing I didn't really like was how long it took before Country Springs actually contacted us back.
During the project there were some things that went well for Mitchell and me. The prezi went well and didn't freeze on us too many times. Interviews at Water Technology and Country Springs went well. All of our questions were answered. There were two things that were hard about this project. The first was finding written articles on the maintenance of water parks. Another thing that was hard was getting Country Springs to contact us back.
Overall our project was successful. My goals for my next project are
- Find at least 3 written articles about the topic.
- Contact experts at the beginning of the project.
This is a really cool project. You pick something you liked and turned it into a project. Did you get to play in the water park at Country Springs?
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