Texas State Aquarium's Playground Renovation and Zero-Depth Water Park

In 2002 the Texas State Aquarium created Kid’s Port, an interactive playscape for families to enjoy after their tour through the Aquarium. During the summer months, up to 80% of Aquarium guests are families with children. In addition, throughout the year more than 65,000 children visit the Aquarium as part of school groups and field trips. Predictably this play area has been hugely popular, extending our guests’ visits and allowing children to have fun outdoors in a safe, contained environment. Now, after eight years of salt air and high usage, it is time to update this area and address some enhancements that can make the Aquarium experience even better.
Despite shade structures and misting fans, the South Texas sun limits the amount of time kids can play during the hot summers. In order to transform this area into a cool, interactive play location, the Aquarium is creating a new “splash area”. Modeled after successful projects at the Florida Aquarium and Louisville Zoo, the Aquarium will introduce the first zero-depth water play park in Corpus Christi. Utilizing a marine theme, the splash area will feature a boat structure, complete with a water wheel and bucket that will periodically dump cooling water. Water domes and various spray locations will allow children and adults to get as wet as they want – or just get a sprinkle to cool off in the hot summer sun. The zero-depth water construction will eliminate standing water issues while recycling water through cleaning units for reuse.
In addition to the cooling water features, the Aquarium’s new playground will feature a fossil pit. Kids will be able to dig through sand in search of fossils all the while learning about the prehistoric animals that once roamed this region. They can even find and take home a real fossilized shark’s tooth! The Aquarium is working with local geologists to incorporate educational activities with this hands-on “Dino Dig” for budding paleontologists.
Existing playground equipment will be assessed and refurbished where appropriate, reducing construction costs. The dry play areas will continue to provide age-appropriate playscapes for children at all levels from toddlers to teens. The overall footprint of the playground area will be increased to accommodate the additional features and the anticipated increased usage. Plans also call for additional seating for families, changing cabanas, and stroller parking areas.
This “cool” new marine-themed playground with multi-level playscapes, water features and fossil dig will be a wonderful new attraction for kids to cool off and have fun in a safe environment within the Aquarium grounds. Preliminary design sketches of the new playground have been provided as an attachment to this proposal.

Construction Costs and Timeline: The conceptual design work for expanded playground has already begun and will continue through the summer of 2010. Detailed construction plans are expected to be ready by August 2010. Attached to this application is a preliminary budget; a more detailed budget will be available in mid-August, along with finalize conceptual designs for the renovation. Depending on funding, construction could begin as early as October, 2010, with an anticipated opening date of spring or summer 2011. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $495,500.