Coastin' Dave's Theme Park Guides
- HVAC SYSTEMS
CFM - cubic feet per minute; this refers to the air flow of a system.
Your CFM will determine what system you need.
To calculate CFM, you need to calculate the volume of your indoor space.
Then follow these guide lines for air flow in the following environments:
-Engine Room, Boiler Room: Every 1 to 4 minutes
-Kitchen, Bar, Laboratory: Every 2 to 5 minutes
-Warehouse, Machine Shop: Every 3 to 7 minutes
-Classroom, Home, Store, Restroom, Auditorium: Every 4 to 10 minutes
*Sources will be at the end in the REFERENCES chapter
Divide your room volume by the number above (say, 1,000 cubic feet divided by a bar with an air exchange rate of 3 minutes = 333 1/3)
CFM determines the system used for a space - for modelling purposes I could not find an exact spacing guide for air vents. All I could find was the above information of finding out the necessary system for a space.
Knowing this, you could potentially find out a HVAC system model your space would need to at least give you an idea of what the ventillation system would look like and you could model using your best judgement from there.
- ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS:
For this guide, I won't go in-depth into electrical engineering. Instead, just think of modelling your building as follows:
Any electrical device needs to be plugged in. Chances are, if you have a dark ride for example, the walls will not have interior electrical systems. Instead, any exit signs, lights, or even speakers, will have exposed conduits leading to them. The conduits house all necessary wires so thankfully, you don't need to worry about what wires go where.
Just know for 3D modelling, anything with electricity needs to be plugged in to SOMETHING - and that something needs to either directly supply power (i.e. a solar panel) or go to something that supplies power (a transformer for that area of the park).
Somewhere will exist a meter to read the energy usage of that building so keep that in mind as well. That meter may be directly on the building or located at a near-by substation or both.
Keep in mind, this is just 3D modelling advice for making a realistic building and does not consitute advice for electrical engineering. I am not an electrical engineer - if you are created a real project, consult a real professional electrical engineer and not an internet roller coaster-enthusiast.
And just like your house, somewhere will exist a circuit breaker box for your facility.
- WATER/SEWAGE SYSTEMS
There are a few pipes to consider for all water needs:
- cold water send
- hot water send
- natural gas send
- drain return
- vent return
I have labelled them "send" and "return" in reference to their function in the water system.
Somewhere will exist a water source, either local (like a well or water tower) or distant (not immediately in sight - basically plugging into "the grid").
That water source will deliver "cold" water (obviously "cold" is relative to location, altitude, and a slew of other factors) and once at your facility, that cold water line will enter a water softener tank which can help filter the "hard" water entering your system (hard water contains a lot of minerals/contaminants and "soft" water contains little of those things - "purified" water is typically put through a process known as "reverse osmosis" which basically means the water is extremely processed until it is cleaned of any impurities or contaminants - you may include this in addition to a water softener tank, so keep that in mind).
The cold water will leave the softener tank and go out to any water sources (fountains, sinks, etc...). Your cold water line will also send a pipe to a water heater - then a hot water line will leave the water heater.
NOTE: your water heater will include another entry line which will be the natural gas to supply the water heater.
Your natural gas and hard cold water entry lines will contain shut-off valves somewhere outside as well as a water meter and a gas meter.
The hot water line leaving the water heater will go out to any devices requiring hot water.
ALL water devices will have a drain line that leaves the facility to a sewer or septic facility/receptacle.
A vent line should branch off vertically from your drain lines and will most likely exit on the roof of your building.
Please note, I am not a plumber - this is a guide for 3D modelling and general design to make more realistic attractions. If you are a professional please don't grill me - there's a nice steak house not 10 minutes from my apartment, so if you want something grilled, we can just go there instead.
Finally, for those unfamiliar, it is common to label pipes, especially in commercial settings. The Utilidor under Disney's Magic Kingdom has water and electrical piping all along the ceiling below the guest level of the park.
The water pipes tend to be big white PVC-looking pipes with colored labels for hot and cold water (red for hot and blue for cold) with colored directional arrows showing the water flow as well.
PARTS 8-10 WILL BE POSTED BELOW
- BACKSTAGE AREAS:
For Restaurants a 60-40% split of square footage is common - 60% of a space is for guest dining while 40% is backstage serving, meaning your kitchen, storage, and any other preparation space.
A similar guide can be applied to retail depending on the products you plan to host. Small products obviously need less stock room space than large products and if products need refrigeration then of course you will need a stock room closer to 40% of your sales floor.
Remember these are guidelines and are not to replace your better judgement so long as you comply with fire codes regarding egress routes in regard to your occupancy estimates.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY PLEASE INCLUDE A BREAKROOM. CAST MEMBERS UNITE!
And please, please, PLEASE give your cast members some space - we need room to eat, to put our feet up, and store our bags. Lockers are always a plus and so is having a bathroom (preferably a separate male and female bathroom).
Usually a break room will also include some form of a manager's small office (desk, computer, and LOTS of paper work as well as charging stations for any radios, tablets, or other devices).
Break rooms often include a training office, though not always (I've worked in some locations cough, cough, tomorrowland, cough, cough that combine multiple venues into a single training office lounge over Speedway, cough, cough)
Also breakrooms usually have a closet for brooms, dust pans, mops, wet floor signs, and any spray bottles and other cleaning equipment for cleaning, erm, protein spills...
Important to note for backstage areas is figuring out how many cast members will be on shift at any given time. I will save staff positions for another guide, but in general, keep in mind that if you have say, a dozen staff positions, you will need a few extra staff members to rotate out for breaks as well as having at least one manager on hand.
Realistically, a dozen cast member position more accurately translates into 14-15 cast members at the venue total (at least 1-2 to give breaks and at least one manager).
Once you know how many cast members you can expect on shift at a time, you can determine square footage use of the breakroom based on your desired occupancy (bearing in mind that there may also be pre/post-shift meetings of the entire team in said break room and it is always ideal to save room for a few extra people in case of team meetings with upper management reps).
Breakrooms also include time clocks (sometimes wall units like ones used with systems like Kronos and sometimes desktop computers used by Disney for its cast deployment service [CDS]).
Somewhere will be a bulletin board to post schedules and workplace guidelines.
Workplace guidelines will include any company specific guidelines (uniform policies, attendance policies, sales or capacity goals, and any other relevant venue memos) as well as county, state, and national guidelines such as OSHA policies, state workers' rights policies, minimum wage laws and listings, discrimination laws, etc...
Any of these general policies can easily be found online. I am including the "Required Posters" for Tennessee Employers as this is my state of residence as an example.
The link will be in the Chapter 10 References section.
Amusement devices must have a certificate of inspection, typically updated annually, and most any business will also have a business license somewhere on display along with any other necessary permits and certificates of inspection (such as health inspections, especially for food service locations).
IMPORTANT NOTE: any work place dealing with chemicals (such as many cleaning or mechanical fluids you will find associated with roller coasters and amusement rides for example) will require a MSDS or SDS
These stand for "Material Safety Data Sheets" or "Safety Data Sheets" (At some point I guess they changed it from MSDS to SDS - it was always MSDS at every venue I've ever worked).
These are big yellow binders with red lettering on the spine "MSDS" that contain all of the necessary safety information on any chemical at a venue.
These are required by OSHA to be accessible to all employees of that venue - the MSDS goes over things such as how to safely handle and store chemicals as well as how to deal with emergency spills, exposures, and injuries due to chemicals.
Certain chemicals require an emergency eye-wash station, an emergency overhead shower, gloves, goggles, and even special recepticles for specific chemicals. If you are modelling a ride maintenance area, chances are you should include metal cabinets for chemical storage, as well as an emergency eye-wash and shower station.
I will include a link to the MSDS online in the references section.
- PARKING
10' wide, 20' long. Nice and simple. Aisle is 24' for two-way traffic.
Minimum is 8' x 18' though (just in case you hate people and want big trucks over the line because God knows that here in Tennessee, anyone with a big truck CAN'T PARK WITHIN THEIR OWN F****** LINES!)
For ADA spaces, there must be a gap 5' wide of NO PARKING either to the left or right side, and the ADA space must be 11' wide minimum, but some sources I found say 12' - just be nice and do 12'.
You can group ADA spaces into pairs - so no gap in between two spaces, but the 5' NO PARKING gap on the left and right most edges.
The 5' gap between spaces needs to be 8' for van accessible spaces (which have a "VAN ACCESSIBLE" sign under the "RESERVED PARKING" sign).
Many theme parks use angled parking - because angled parking is amazing. Fight me.
Again, using 10' x 20' spaces:
For 45 degree angled parking, spaces extend 20.5' from the front bumper line to the aisle. There should be 13' of interior aisle space for one-way traffic.
For 60 degree angled parking, spaces extend 22' from the front bumper line to the aisle. There should be 18' of aisle space for one-way traffic.
If you are using the double-stacked angled parking like Disney, just double the length (and maybe add an extra foot or two like a good Samaritan).
When making parking lots PLEASE use CLEAR SIGNAGE - don't be like the Atlanta airport and confuse innocent drivers just trying to get from Point A to Point B via automobile like the good Lord intended.
NUMBER OF PARKING SPACES
For hotels, 1 per unit and 1 per 5 cast members.
For restaurants, 1 per 300 square feet of patron area and 1 per 2 employees
For retail shops, 1 per 300 square feet of patron area
There are many more situations for parking, but because of the nature of theme parks and the fact that the "1 space per 300 square feet" keeps coming up for so many applications, it sounds like a good basis to use.
For every 300 square feet of venues (shops, restaurants, exhibits, etc...) include at least one parking space.
For employees, refer to the previous chapter 8 "Backstage Areas" to figure out each venue's staffing needs - use this to determine parking spaces KEEPING IN MIND that there may exist overlap between opening and closing teams and that theme parks may need extra staff on hand during busier seasons such as Christmas and New Year's.
As a former Universal Team Member and former Disney Cast Member - PLEASE GIVE US ROOM TO PARK - WE HATE ORBITING ENDLESSLY LOOKING FOR A SPACE WHEN SHIFT STARTS IN 15 MINUTES!
My advice: do not, ever, EVER put all of your employee spaces in a single location - try to maybe make smaller lots split up behind your different lands - guests can use a main lot, but splitting up your employee parking gives employees less of a walk, and doesn't require any extra cost.
You'd make the same number of spaces anyway you know so why not help us cast members out? No?
Alright... I tried...
Finally,
NUMBER OF ADA SPACES
There is a whole table for ADA space guidelines which I will link to in the next chapter.
For now, I will just give the upper guidelines considering that most theme parks easily cross the threshold of 1000 parking spaces.
For 1001 spaces or more, there must be 20 regular ADA spaces plus 1 more ADA for every 100 spaces over 1000.
At this level, you will need at least 2 van spaces, but the chart doesn't specify a rate of adding more beyond that.
Only 1 van space is required from 1-6 ADA spaces.
So at 7 ADA spaces another van space is required.
SO, you could say a van space is required for every 6 non-van ADA spaces.
Yes? Sound good? Cool.
This is just a general reference guide, so just use your best judgement with van spaces.
- REFERENCES
That concludes my general guide. Thanks for checking this out, and I hope it can help you in your Planet Coaster, Nolimits, or other theme park design projects.
-Coastin' Dave
Special notes: From IAAPA's website -
"Then-Congressman Ed Markey convened a panel of leading doctors, biodynamic consultants, medical experts, and ride safety specialists to study the amusement park industry's safety record.The panel concluded it is unlikely that a federal agency could match the effectiveness of the current system."
https://www.iaapa.org/amusement-ride-safety/regulations-standards
Tennessee Employer Required Posters:
https://www.tn.gov/workforce/general-resources/major-publications0/major-publications-redirect/posters-redirect/required-posters.html
Door size PDF:
https://www.trudoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/rough-opening-sizes-for-commercial-metal-door-frames.pdf
Square footage per person reference:
https://www.jackrouse.com/deconstructing-capacity-capacity-by-the-numbers/
Egress Door reference:
https://umdearborn.edu/offices/environmental-health-and-safety/fire-safety/basic-requirements-means-egress
HVAC CFM reference:
https://www.industrialfansdirect.com/blogs/info-center/how-many-cfm-do-i-need-for-1-000-square-feet
MSDS online:
https://www.msdsonline.com/sds-search/
ADA parking table:
https://adata.org/factsheet/parking
I've been trying to make my own personal theme park design projects more realistic. So, I spent a good many hours creating some guides to theme park design. This first guide I've written goes over some general building codes as well as other aspects to keep in mind for more realistic 3D modelling. This is for the people who want to take their designs to the next level of realism. I hope you find this useful. I am not a professional architect or engineer so please read the guide with the understanding that it is just that - a guide for recreational use only.
If you like this guide and would like me to release a PDF version (possibly illustrated) please let me know - and if you are a professional in a relevant field, please let me know any other important general information that could be useful to a creative designer working in 3D simulation. Thank you all and enjoy the guide!
Coastin' Dave's Guide to Design:
Hi everyone, Coastin' Dave here - around the world there are national and international standards for building codes. There are many constants, but there are also many variations at the federal, state, and local municipal levels. Because of these variations, I cannot accurately document EVERY possible circumstance - that is what the giant code books are for.
This guide is intended to be a basic guide to general building codes that you should be familiar with in designing theme park lands and attractions. We will be focusing on general concepts such as minimum clearance heights for walkways, stair and ramp guides, ADA compliance, and emergency egress guides.
I have consulted official ADA guidelines as well as the 2012 Fire Code for the state of Tennessee (my current state of residence).
Again, there may be variations among different states and in other nations, but the purpose here is to give you some basic guidelines to get you started in your design work.
THIS IS NOT INTENDED FOR PROFESSIONAL USE - THIS IS FOR RECREATIONAL PURPOSES. ANY PROFESSIONAL COMMERCIAL PROJECTS SHOULD BE MADE BASED ON ACTUAL LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODES.
Chapter list:
Ceiling height minimum of 7' 6" (78" absolute lowest point for door header, most will be 80" and that is the recommended minimum).
For Attraction load gates, I recommend 28" minimum clearance width. HOWEVER, I could not find a specific guideline or code for this so I am basing this figure off of the minimum egress route guide. ADA of course requires 36" wide so keep that in mind for ADA accessible rows.
1" of rise per 1' of run. No more than 30' of run before a level rest. Level rest must be 60" long.
Level rest must be same width as path. If a direction change occurs at a landing then it must be 60" x 60" minimum
ADA path minimum is 36" wide
If a rise is greater than 6" or run greater than 72" then it must have handrails on both sides.
Handrails must continue 12" beyond each end of the ramp; the space between the handrail and wall shall be 1.5" and top of handrail should be 34-38" over ramp surface.
Handrail ends should smoothly connect to something or curve.
Ramps need a curb of at least 2" in height to prevent sliding off the edge.
A lower railing is mounted no higher than 27" above the ramp
Need 36" minimum between handrail interiors and between ramp curbs.
On stairs, the main railing needs to be a minimum of 42" over the surface of each step (with the ADA grab railing being inset and mounted 34-38" over the steps)
Which leads us to a few more guidelines....
STAIRS:
Rise no higher than 12' before a landing
7.75" Max rise per step (4" minimum)
at least 11" run clear (exluding any part of a step that extends beyond the front edge of the next step)
NOTE: I personally use 12" run with a 6" rise because it's easiest to work with in my opinion. Based on your model, you can work within the given guidelines above which are based on IBC guidelines (OSHA guidelines are different, but those are mainly for manufacturing type facilities - not really things the general public will access like a theme park attraction)
Egress routes must be at LEAST 28" wide at ALL points
Ramps for emergency exits should contrast with adjacent floor materials
Ceiling may have protruding objects so long as they grant 80" headroom and cover no more than 50% of the ceiling
Elevators, escalators, moving walk ways, etc, cannot be used for emergency egress.
NOTE: for exit doors, there are MANY different sizes. I personal use 3' wide by 7'. This is a pretty common size with a 6' wide double-door option as well.
Here are a few options and the necessary opening in your building design to allow room for the door frame:
3' x 6' 8" = 40.5" x 82.25"
3' 6" x 6' 8" = 46.5" x 82.25"
4' x 6' 8" = 52.5" x 82.25"
3' x 7' = 40.5" x 86.25"
3' 6" x 7' = 46.5" x 86.25"
4' x 7' = 52.5" x 86.25"
6' x 6' 8" pair = 76.5" x 82.25"
6' x 7' pair = 76.5" x 86.25"
Before determining how many exits you need for any given facility, you need to determine the occupancy of that space.
Here is a breakdown of square footage usage per different facilities:
Theatre seating: 12 sqr ft per person
Exhibit viewing: 16-25 sqr ft per person
Queues: 5-7 sqr ft per person
Elevators: 2-3 sqr ft per person
Retail: 24 sqr ft per person
Restrooms: 36 sqr ft per fixture (not person)
Restaurant: 12-15 sqr ft per person
There are a lot of different codes for fire exits. Like... a LOT.
So here's some general rules I gathered for you to consider:
Typically, it's best to have at LEAST two exits, especially if a space is 1,000 square feet or more.
Vehicle ramps do NOT constitute an exit. Exits MUST be regular door ways.
If you can only have 1 exit (think bathrooms for example) then the occupancy cannot exceed 50 people.
Doors must swing in direction of egress.
Egress doors can't be too close together, otherwise they still count as only one exit - whatever the diagonal distance across your room is, doors should be about 1/3 of that distance apart to count as separate - in theme park design your rooms may be weirdly shaped sometimes so just use your best judgement here.
NUMBER OF EGRESS DOORS:
If you only have one door of egress, occupancy CANNOT exceed 50 persons.
For a doorway, think of a 1% rule of square footage per person.
If you have 15 square feet per person in your space, take 1% of that number, 0.15, and use that as the number of inches of exit door.
So that would be 0.15" of space out of the total of ALL exit doors.
So if you have three doors at 3' wide each, that's a total of 108" - divide that by our 0.15" per person, and that gives us an occupancy of 720 persons.
It may be a bit confusing but bottom line, if you need more people, make more exits available. Something to consider: if you have switchback queues or multiple lines passing each other (think fastpass beside a single rider or stand-by queue) then you can add an opening piece of fence or barrier for emergencies (Space Mountain WDW has a push-bar that opens a gate between the fastpass and stand-by queue for quick emergency egress).
For evac catwalks, something to consider:
Stair chairs for evac from high catwalks (Stryker is one manufacturer - typical model weighs about 40 lbs and can carry passengers of about 400-500 lbs)
I'd recommend having 2-3 stair chairs available at each block zone or set of block zones, but that's honestly just my opinion based on how I would design an attraction - that is not based on any hard code that I am aware of, though there may be specific codes out there for that sort of thing - this is a general guide and I have a life so I'm not going to research that for this document. You have the internet too - I believe in you.
Sprinkler heads cover about 130 square feet typically and can cover 200 square feet for areas of low flammability.
Fire extinguishers are considered to cover up to 3,000 square feet of a building in terms of accessibility.
Travel distance to a fire extinguisher for a covered area should not exceed 100 feet.
PARTS 5-10 WILL BE IN ANOTHER POST FOLLOWING THIS ONE