In episode 40, Tom Salzer, the health and wellness market lead at Elevatus, details the challenges and opportunities that exist in recreation center design. Salzer’s central point is rising construction costs are unlikely to ease, so projects must be more intentional — smaller, yet more impactful and able to serve varied community needs. He recommended broad partnerships among recreation, health care, government, childcare, senior services, and disability communities to increase public value and help justify investment to donors, funders and taxpayers. A key practical takeaway was to involve the construction partner from the start, using real-time cost estimates and construction input through approaches such as design-build or integrated project delivery.
Other major takeaways included designing facilities with clear sightlines and central visibility to improve supervision and make programs easier for members to discover. Salzer described analytics as a growing priority. Funders want evidence of impact, and facilities are exploring tools such as AI heat maps and participation data to track outcomes. Elevatus brings together health care, recreation, childcare, and higher-education design expertise for multi-use projects and works nationwide. Finally, the firm’s addition of a clinical psychologist supports trauma-informed design, with the goal of improving experiences for patients, members and staff — especially in community facilities that include health care services.
Enjoy!
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