OpenAire, a leading designer and manufacturer of retractable roofs and skylights, is celebrating the opening of a new indoor retractable roof waterpark on the Gulf Coast. Tropic Falls Waterpark at OWA in Foley, Alabama is just seven miles from the Gulf of Mexico and boasts a theme park, sports complex, and retail and dining area.
The park at OWA, which translates as ‘Big Water’ in the Creek Indian language, was announced by the Tribal chair and CEO of The Poarch Band of Creek Indians in 2016, and opened in 2017.
Tropic Falls, which opened in 2022, is the most recent addition to the park. This highly anticipated indoor-outdoor waterpark extends to 65,000 square feet.
Sliding door feature
The new waterpark is the biggest of its kind on the Gulf Coast and uses innovative technology to create a seamless indoor-outdoor experience. Not only does the indoor waterpark have a retractable roof, but it also features a retractable wall which connects it to the outdoor wave pool.
This retractable wall is the largest in the Southern US, at 128 feet wide and 26 feet high. The door slides fully open to offer an astonishing opening at 3,400 square feet.
OpenAire recently spoke to blooloop about the benefits of opening up waterpark buildings, explaining how by opening the roof and walls of their waterpark building, attraction operators can transform a normal space into both an indoor and outdoor facility – while adding extra ventilation.
Nancy Patterson, OpenAire’s director of design and business development, says: “We know that clients sit in boardrooms with architects and mechanical engineers and say: ‘It is impossible! It’s just not the way waterparks are built — it’s not how we’ve always done it — forget about it!’”
“First, stop thinking of your space as a hermetically sealed box, you are not building a hospital. You are building a waterpark. Yes, it is a normal building, built to be heated and/or cooled… But it is a space traditionally considered to be outdoor, full of happy faces, splashing, spraying, slides, rides, surfing, food, drink and fun.”
OpenAire has also shared details of they helped to set Zehnder’s Splash Village Hotel and Waterpark on the path to success with retractable roofs. Continual property upgrades have formed part of a successful strategy which enabled the owners to overcome typical challenges in the industry.
