Page 5 - Commercial Site Furnishings

To expand the audience for your barbecuing skills consider cooking out at a park on those durable park charcoal grills

Get the most out of the outdoors by prepping your meals on the park charcoal grills that are provided on location for your use and enjoyment.

You know what we're talking about, right? Those sturdy, steel, all-purpose permanent grills that you see installed in campgrounds and your city, state and national parks, provided for your outdoor cooking use.

They have the ability to turn any outing into a memorable event with their built-in convenience and capabilities. You can easily cook the day's meals on site, extending the amount of outside time you can enjoy at your local park or campground.

Cooking on park charcoal grills has benefits

There are many advantages to using the installed park charcoal grills while at a park or campground.

Perhaps the biggest feature of using these charcoal grills is their convenience. They are already there, installed in a safe place for your

The new Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco features a 5-acre rooftop park, an example of the innovative way cities are now creating green spaces. (Photo by Fullmetal2887

When a city builds a giant structure, a new bus terminal for example, why not put some grass, park benches and shrubbery on the roof and create a park too?

That's exactly what the City of San Francisco did recently when they opened their new Salesforce Transit Center and added a huge rooftop park.

The innovative 5-acre park is already creating a buzz not just around town, but around the nation as well.

The Salesforce Transit Center is a monstrous structure, almost the length of five football fields, that people are now calling the "Grand Central Station of the West."

Construction of the terminal began back in 2010 and was instigated by the 1989 Loa Prietra earthquake, which damaged the previous Transbay Terminal that had served as the bus depot since 1939. Total cost will be an estimated $2.26 billion.

The

Providing clean and safe commercial site furnishings and trash receptacles at your location are the keys to avoiding poor online reviews by visitors

For any facility or park manager, online reviews can be pleasing and they can be brutal, so here's a checklist to provide the right commercial site furnishings to keep those comments positive and ratings high.

Online reviews are the new reality. Research shows that 91% of people regularly or occasionally will check out an online review before they visit a location. Not only for businesses, but you also for parks and public facilities as well.

The beauty of the internet is that this technology gives a voice to the average person. The bad thing about the internet is that technology gives a megaphone to people who are upset. Justified or not.

You may have the nicest, cleanest and most comfortable facility in the world. But if a visitor sits at a dirty picnic table, sees overflowing trash receptacles or steps in dog waste that wasn't picked up

New York City has created some interesting programs to involve citizens in keeping their 25,000 commercial trash cans from overflowing

If you think taking out the garbage is a chore, think about what New York City goes through every day with its 25,000 commercial trash cans.

All the trash from homes, businesses and institutions handled by city workers on a daily basis amounts to 12,000 tons of trash and recyclables. Every day!

This is one reason why The New York City Department of Sanitation is the largest in the world.

Think about the resources that must go into handling 25,000 commercial garbage cans. (And tons of snow in the winter).

While the New York Police Department is known as "New York's Finest," the 7000 uniformed sanitation workers are known as "New York's Strongest."

They definitely earned that moniker by disposing of more than 10,000 tons of refuse every day and lifting more than 20,000 commercial trash cans.

To mobilize an army of that size, you also need equipment.

Here's

Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there - Christopher Alexander To be a carpenter or a builder or a home inspector, you have to have that kind of visual brain where you can sort of imagine something taken apart - Nick Petrie Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it's in everyone's DNA to want to be a builder - Dan Phillips You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality - Walt Disney Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design. - Stephen Gardiner Either a building is part of a place or it is not. Once that kinship is there, time will only make it stronger - Willa Cather A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines - Frank Lloyd Wright We shape our buildings: thereafter, they shape us - Winston Churchill And a

 

One county decided to let its citizens decide on the choice of park benches for a redevelopment project downtown

Park benches are available in a huge variety of styles, materials, and coatings and for some people that could cause a dilemma.

That's why government planners in Montgomery County, MD, agreed to let local citizens choose the type of park benches and trash receptacles they prefer for their downtown redevelopment project.

Clever right?

There are so many options out there for park benches. Just visit the Park and Facilities Catalog website to see the hundreds of different styles we offer.

Let's start with the materials. Park benches can be manufactured with metal, concrete, wood, recycled plastic and aluminum.

That's just the beginning.

Park benches offer many options

Say for example you choose a metal park bench. There are several choices to make from there.

What size? Benches can range from 4 feet to 15 feet in length.

Do you want the metal covered with a powder-coat or

At times standard aluminum bleachers won't work for a particular location. In that case, The Park and Facilities Catalog offers free layouts for custom bleachers

Aluminum bleachers that need to be customized might the best alternative for your location instead of standard bleachers.

But don't fret, custom bleachers are not uncommon.

First of all, if you believe your project requires customized bleachers, you are not alone. At the Park and Facilities Catalog, about 20% of our projects install non-standard products.

Here's some good news. The Park and Facilities Catalog offers FREE consultations and FREE seating spec sheet layouts for custom projects.

We understand. Not every bleacher project is cookie-cutter. Many times there are extenuating circumstances. Sometimes, a major adaption of standard bleachers is required. Other times just a small revision is needed.

Don't worry. We've got you covered.

Several reasons for customized aluminum bleachers

In our experience, here are some of the most

Here's a list of Education and School Quotes to celebrate the new school year.

1. In some parts of the world, students are going to school every day. It's their normal life. But in other parts of the world, we are starving for education...it's like a precious gift. It's like a diamond - Malala Yousafzai 2. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest - Benjamin Franklin 3. You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that's the one thing people can't take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment - Michelle Obama 4. You know, nothing is more important than education, because nowhere are our stakes higher; our future depends on the quality of education of our children today - Arnold Schwarzenegger 5. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself - John Dewey 6. The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet - Aristotle 7. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively

A double-decker bike rack at the Beau View Condominium building in Biloxi, MS provides plenty of space to keep bikes stacked orderly and secure

A double-decker bike rack in a bike storage room is becoming a more popular choice as building managers realize providing secure bicycle parking can be a great amenity to promote.

Take the Beau View Condos in Biloxi, MS, for example.

This beautiful 112-unit luxury high-rise condominium is located on the Gulf of Mexico with access to sandy white beaches, incredible sunsets, family things to do and great shopping. (And of course, "Casino Row" is nearby).

What's also appealing about this residence along the gulf, is the ability to ride bicycles throughout the area. Park and forget the car. Hop on a bike and pedal along the beach and around town.

More and more Americans today own bicycles. There are an estimated 60 million people in the US who report they have ridden a bicycle in the past 12 months.

Bicycles are becoming an important part of people's

ADA picnic tables with wheelchair access in the center

How accessible are your parks or facilities for providing ADA picnic tables, grills or even bleachers?

Because here is an important statistic. The National Park Service estimates that 1 in 5 Americans has a disability. (One reason why the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990.)

For that reason, back in 2012, the National Park Service created a group, the Accessibility Task Force, to study and find ways to ensure that parks are accessible to people with disabilities.

That task force created a strategic plan called "All In! Accessibility in the National Park Service - 2015-2020."

The group came up with three main goals:

Create a welcome environment for visitors with disabilities Make sure that new facilities and programs were created with accessibility in mind Upgrade existing facilities to provide better access

When you think about the implications, visiting a park can be a rewarding experience for someone who

How parks receive the IDA's Dark-Sky Certification

Most people don't realize that when they look up into the sky at night, they only see part of the picture.

What picture? The Universe.

As civilization has advanced, so has our tendency to attempt to light up every corner of the world.

There are a number of reasons why this is important.

However, there is one very negative side effect - light pollution.

When most people peer up into the night sky, they are not able to view the true sky as earlier inhabitants of the planet were able to do.

If you can find a place far away from the light, the view of a dark sky is spectacular.

You not only see prominent planets and stars in the foreground, you soon realize there is a mosaic of a gazillion points of light behind them that make up our incredible and infinite universe.

The stars and the expanse never ends.

Constellations pop out everywhere.

The big shocker comes when you realize you are able to view that wide strip of stars mashed together

Doctors beginning to write prescriptions for their patients to spend more time in parks

Parks and doctors are starting a movement to get us to think differently about visiting a park where people usually relax on a park bench or enjoy a cookout at a picnic table.

These different groups want to persuade their patients that going to a park can be more like taking medicine.

Specifically, physicians are urging their patients to visit a park as a way to get moving. Exercise. Get more exposure to fresh air and sunshine. That's the remedy many doctors are now recommending for their patients.

Their prescriptions include a list of parks near their home, specific activities they can do, duration of those activities and how often they should do it.

The program is also partnered with the National Park Service and their Healthy Parks Healthy People US program.

Take the example of one doctor, Dr. Robert Zarr who founded Park Rx America. As a pediatrician at Unity Health Care in Washington, DC, he

Memorial bench at a beach. Memorial benches are becoming a more preferred way to honor someone in a community because they are highly visible and add seating amenities to parks or favorite locations

A memorial bench is a perfect way to commemorate someone in your community for a number of reasons.

But let's first talk about two memorial benches that were recently installed at a beach in San Diego.

These benches held special meaning for surfers in the area.

The concrete memorial benches were installed to honor Larry Gordon and Skeeter Malcolm, two surfing legends who literally pioneered the sport in San Diego, probably most of California and were sure to have an influence around the rest of the country.

Gordon, who passed away in 2016 a the age of 76, partnered with friend Floyd Smith to make surfboards back in the 1960s, when surfing was just a fledgling pastime.

They were one of the first surfers to manufacture boards with polyurethane foam, making them easier to ride than clunky wooden

Be sure the outdoor bleachers you add to your facility have a high slip-resistance rating

Outdoor bleachers can sometimes be subjected to rough and tough wear very similar to what's taking place on the field. Then of course, since these structures are outside, you have to battle the environment as well.

That's why you must install aluminum bleachers with slip-resistance qualities.

Let's face it. When you have a three to four-hour event such as a football game taking place, you will have quite a bit of activity on those outdoor bleachers as well.

Children will run.

Teens will spill their sodas and stomp around the stands.

Grandparents will want to attend and will have to be gingerly helped up and down the steps and ramps.

Fans will jump up and down to cheer on their favorite teams.

It's going to rain during some games. Maybe it will snow.

The temperatures could drop into the freezing range.

To look at the even bigger picture, the National Floor Safety Institute estimates there are more than

Now that more than 80 million Americans say they like to barbecue, it's smart to add larger grills to parks and campgrounds so pitmasters can cook more food faster and free up the grills

Permanent grills are now a necessity more than ever at parks, campsites and private outdoor facilities.

But do you have enough grills to handle the demand?

Because here's a staggering statistic - nearly 80 million Americans have used an outdoor grill in the past year, according to the US Census.

That's a whole bunch of folks.

Sure, many of them have their own gas or charcoal grills at home.

But there is a big segment of the population who like to cook outdoors on park charcoal grills with a large gathering of friends and family members.

And of course, when camping, you have no choice but to grill, unless you can subsist on granola bars. Heck, cooking on a grill or over a fire ring is one of the best parts of camping!

The demand for grills at some city parks has gotten so intense, that people have to reserve