The City of Huntington Beach in California is a popular vacation destination on the West Coast. Affectionately dubbed “Surf City USA”, Huntington Beach is known for its high-quality beach areas, seasonal events, and its world-famous pier. The area offers many recreational opportunities to visitors from surfing its renowned waves to birdwatching in Central Park.
Over the past decade, Romtec has worked with the City of Huntington Beach on numerous projects. These projects required Romtec to design and supply new buildings for restrooms, concession stands, multipurpose buildings, and retail stores to be used throughout the city. One constant throughout all of these projects is the dedication from the City of Huntington Beach to provide high-quality public facilities for its parks & recreation locations. These buildings are used and displayed in some of the most popular locations in the city.
The City of Huntington Beach first partnered with Romtec in 2008 to design and supply seven public restrooms that were constructed along 3.5 miles of the City’s beach path. The beach path is a hotspot for locals and tourists alike. Like many other successful parks & rec departments across the nation, the City of Huntington Beach chose to design these buildings with matching exterior design options. Using architectural elements derived from the Southwest, the seven beach restrooms include stucco exteriors, stone wainscot, and concrete roofing that mimics Spanish tile. The restrooms were constructed using rugged CMU block with structurally insulated panels, or SIPs, as the roof structure. Solar panels were included as a consistent source of power to the building. Together these design choices create seven great-looking restrooms that reinforce aesthetic themes around the city. The next project involved three unique retail buildings that required similar touches.
Huntington Beach Pier is a landmark along the West Coast of the country. The City needed three unique retail buildings, two to be installed directly on the pier. The location and building requirements meant Romtec needed an atypical approach. Rather than CMU block walls, these buildings were built using stick-framing construction. Using photos provided by the City, the new buildings were designed to match an existing hexagonally shaped building already installed on the pier. In order to achieve the aesthetic, the new retail shops needed to include sliding doors for the entrances and 360-degrees of angled windows surrounding the building. Windows in the front of the building were required to display merchandise to foot traffic. Today, these three buildings are used as a kite store, fishing store, and the Surf City Store. The last set of projects Romtec has worked with the City of Huntington Beach was for a different application in Central Park.
For the most recent projects at Huntington Beach, Romtec designed and supplied two similar buildings for the Central Park Sports Complex. Central Park is a large 354-acre park that offers a lot of activities. While expanding the facilities at the sports complex, the City needed to install two new buildings, a restroom facility with a concession/admission window, and a team gathering room for sports. The team gathering building was designed as a large open building split into two sections: a team area and an interior office for park personnel. Using a similar approach as before, the buildings were designed to match. Stucco exteriors, stone wainscoting, and green metal roofing were chosen to give the buildings a stand-out appearance. Using SIPs for the roof structure reinforced the building insulation values. The higher insulation of these components provide a greater degree of energy efficiency, especially during summer and winter months. These buildings see a lot of use through both youth and adult sports leagues.
The City of Huntington Beach consistently demonstrates a dedication to providing high-quality public facilities for all of its parks & rec locations. The three areas where Romtec has designed and supplied buildings each have their own unique style, purposes, and roles to fulfill. Sharing some common design features, like stucco exteriors, can help to bridge these locations and create a cohesive theme throughout the city. Choosing an experienced designer, supplier, and installer of site-specific parks & rec buildings, like Romtec, is the best way to get building projects completed for all different applications. Contact the Romtec Sales Team to get started on your matching buildings today!
