As a designer, supplier, and manufacturer, Romtec can provide custom features to make your next building project a complete success.
When the City of Medford came to Romtec with concerns in terms of vandalism and destruction of their buildings, we knew it was time to come up with something truly unique. With the combined efforts of Romtec’s engineering team, production crew, and master welders, Romtec was able to provide a one-of-a-kind structure for the City of Medford.
Cedar Links Park is a new park being built on 5 acres that was previously designated as a golf course. The City of Medford received a grant to give this area new life and turn it into a park with new athletic courts, a playground, a dog park, restrooms, and a parking lot (“Cedar Links Park”). The park connects to a two-mile pathway that goes through the adjacent Cedar Landing development (“Cedar Links Park”).
The park was purchased by the City of Medford in 2010 and a master plan was approved in 2014. It became Medford’s 25th neighborhood park, that features basketball courts, pickleball courts, and a community garden. The park, which previously was Cedar Links Golf Course, features many large trees that provide shade all over the park property.
The golf cart paths were developed into walking paths that carry on throughout the park and connect to the nearby pathway. A focus of this park was to add an additional park within walking distance of every resident in the city.
The Romtec supplied restroom structure is the first of Romtec’s “Vandal Proof” designs, composed of ground face and smooth face block, with Board and Batten gable ends and powder-coated doors and frames. The color scheme of the structure matches the nearby playground, providing a unified appearance to the park.
For the park restroom, the City of Medford had a couple of special considerations that Romtec took into account. The primary consideration was security, as the city has a history of people breaking into their restrooms and destroying their doors in the process. To combat this, the city worked with Romtec to develop a door/gate design that is padlocked in the open position during the day but in the closed position at night. Romtec was able to meet this design by custom fabricating the gate on our site, providing the City of Medford with a custom-designed door and restroom from a singular manufacturer.
The city also wanted the door setup to deter vandals from breaking into the building by adding double gates over the main door, creating two barriers for vandals to get through. This gate and door design, nearly eliminates destroyable doors from the building or other vandalism. The gate opens up in front of a door and both are open during the day and closed at night, making the only door entirely inaccessible as the metal gate blocks access.
In the event they do get through, a “security light” feature is initiated. This security light is tied to interior motion sensors to alert police officers patrolling the area to know when someone is inside the building after park hours as the light would be on. A special feature like this is a great way to deter further vandalism in a restroom building while easing the jobs of the patrolling police force.
The gate/door design prevents standard access to the restroom doors. When the gate is open, guests can enter a small hallway with two freeze resistant water fountains along the wall. Then the men’s restroom is on one end of the aisle, and the women’s restroom is on the other, with both restroom areas kept private by privacy walls. Each restroom has stainless steel, high use fixtures for multiple users in phenolic stalls.
Inside the vandal-proof restroom building is a hallway with divider walls for privacy but no doors. The partitions in the restrooms are even made of block for even less destroyable components. Overall, the design of this restroom building was to ultimately reduce vandalism and the destruction of doors by reducing the use of them and protecting the main door with the outer gate.
The restroom building features a metal roof, a truss roof with boxed soffits, openings in the first course of the block at the footings, and a color scheme that matches the adjacent playground.
The structure supplied for the Cedar Links Park is a custom design that met the City of Medford’s needs. Romtec’s in-house engineering and fabrication allows us to go the extra mile for our customers and provide one-of-a-kind features for our buildings.
The City of Medford purchased the design and supply of the building through the InterMountain ESD Cooperative (AEPA) and put the installation out to bid. The Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies has the goal of providing combined volume purchasing contracts. The InterMountain Education Service Agency represents Oregon who craft contracts and bids competitively that are tailored to meet each state’s specific legal requirements.
Dave Dobrin Construction is a local General Contractor out of Medford, OR. They often perform services as the general contractor on residential and commercial projects. They are very detail oriented and hands on with a high level of craftmanship.
RH2 was the engineering consultant on this project. RH2 is based out of Bothell, WA but also has offices in Lake Oswego, OR. RH2 provides a variety of engineering services covering multiple specialties.
The City of Medford has worked with Romtec on a second restroom very similar to Cedar Links Park at Bear Creek Park. They city made sure to match the same building aesthetic of both restrooms buildings to create continuity between them.
If you have a unique problem or have an idea for a feature on a restroom building contact our team to see how we can help you create a solution that solves your problem. Our experienced engineering staff can help create custom solutions with the help of our production shop.
Romtec has helped create many restroom buildings with a vandal proof design all over the country and this project was another example of the capabilities that we can provide our customers. At Romtec we go the extra mile for our customers and provide innovate solutions that fit the needs of our customers.
Cedar Links Park – Medford, Oregon | Oregon Lottery. (2021). Retrieved 9 May 2021, from https://www.oregonlottery.org/programs/2019-jaclspm-state-parks-220/