Story

Design Program:  What was once a large, non-descript area covered with asphalt paving, is now a beautiful festival site with a park like setting that can be enjoyed by all who visit there. Surrounded by many historical buildings in the Arcadia District of downtown Kalamazoo, the new Arcadia Festival Site was designed to be a gathering place for concerts, numerous summer festivals or just a quiet spot to bring your family for a picnic by the banks of the Kalamazoo River. Because the festival site is a year round facility, during the winter months it hosts the Downtown Kalamazoo Winter Festival along with providing an ice rink for all of the ice skating and ice hockey enthusiasts throughout the winter season. Byce & Associates, Inc. mechanically designed a disposal dump station and water spout, along with the electrical service throughout the festival site.

Design Challenges:  One of the largest engineering challenges on this project was to provide adequate power throughout the facility, which also included the vendor area that is positioned on North Edwards Street. Because the festival site is completely open to the general public, when designing the electrical for the band shell it was decided to use fiber optic lighting, which would make vandalism to the shell  more difficult.