We were approached by the premises department of the Spectrum to compete for the redesign of the main ticket area as the original architect’s design prevented ticket staff from dealing with enough customers at busy times. The increasing success of the largest leisure centre in south-east England meant that busy times were becoming increasingly more frequent, to a point that it was affecting revenues and causing long queues! In addition, new ticketing systems and equipment were proposed requiring dedicated desks for the staff with improved customer focused counters.
During our design discussions, Spectrum staff realised we were able to build the solution and project manage the many other specialist contractors involved in this complex refurbishment, all at one cost. We were the only designer to meet the wide range of requirements which had to be robust, attractive and user friendly. Spectrum were now able to have 5 staff facing customers rather than only 1 and the design improved the traffic flow through the entrance meaning faster ticket sales and better crowd control. Each member of staff is able to deal with a customer individually yet the design still has an open welcoming feel, essential in a customer environment. We also re planned the back admin office to accommodate the increase in staff and operations.
In order to ensure the staff desks operated successfully, we built full scale mock-ups to include all the equipment, storage and cabling and provided sample boards and CAD visuals to illustrate the final appearance. This ensured that the design works in the real world, and gave our clients to try it out before committing to the design. In addition, the materials specified were tried and tested to survive in an environment with over 1 million visitors per year, a testament to our experience and real knowledge of construction.
The facility is open from early morning to late at night 364 days of the year so detailed project planning was essential We provided a fast track solution with temporary ticket desks and all the purpose built joinery being constructed off site to reduce on-site time, all behind a temporary façade to protect customers, especially the large numbers of small children.
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