Restroom-concession building designed to match carousel structure

They knew they wanted the centerpiece of the addition, patterned after the old-time “Jersey Shore,” to be a custom-built carousel populated by a menagerie of endangered animals from land and sea. They wanted an entertaining but instructional boardwalk atmosphere, with a sandy beach, shells, animal footprints, native plants and a picnic area. And, finally, they wanted a comfort station that fit in, with restroom facilities and a concession area.

“That whole area used to be a dumping ground outside the perimeter fences,” says Jeremy Goodman, the director of the Turtle Back Zoo. “We had no restroom facilities and no food facilities there.”

With all of that in mind, landscape architect Mike Piga, of French & Parrello Associates in Wall, N.J., set to work.

“The county wanted the carousel under a covered structure, and the restroom building to somehow match,” Piga says. He came up with a classic design for the carousel structure—a 12-sided building that turn-of-the-century visitors to the Jersey shore might have seen.

Designing the comfort station so it matched was a little more challenging. “I still wanted to keep with the shape of the carousel building, only go to eight sides, and we went to Romtec to provide the architecture,” he says. “They gave us a concept, I modified it, and they took it to the next level.

“We put in our design documents what we wanted, and the contractor, Applied Landscaping Technology, contacted Romtec for the purchase. It was really an easy process.”

Romtec provided the zoo with an octagonal-shaped comfort station that matches the exterior of the carousel building. The building contains five unisex, single-user restrooms, one per wall. The remaining three walls of the octagonal structures contain the concession and storage areas.

Besides the multi-sided design, the two buildings share various design features:

• copper gutters
• sky-blue, stainless steel standing-seam roofs
• cultured stone and plaster exteriors
• antique-style lighting fixtures

Energy-saving features of the restroom-concession building include photometric lighting control and radiant floor heating.

“It’s like a mother-daughter design, with the comfort station being the daughter,” Piga explains. Outside the comfort station, evergreen trees provide color, and a retaining wall brings in ornamental perennials and shrubs. A picnic area adjacent to the building provides seating for up to 100 people, and an elevated wooden boardwalk provides a direct pathway to the rest of the zoo.

The Carousel Park and Picnic Area opened to visitors in May 2008, and the red pandas, poison dart frogs and other carousel animals have welcomed a host of visitors. “The comfort station has helped us a lot as far as our visitor services,” Goodman says, “and people absolutely love the area. It’s doing very well for us.”