EpicCentral

In the heart of Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex lies the City of Grand Prairie’s EpicCentral, a 172-acre park site undergoing a multi-phased expansion. Part of the tourism powerhouse that is Grand Prairie, which draws up to 7 million visitors a year to its events, attractions, and venues, EpicCentral was envisioned as an additional key element and local community amenity to captivate tourists.

EpicCenter features intriguing landscaping, a concert stage, immersive lighting effects, and interactive art pieces. The park is home to Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark; The Summit recreation center for adults ages 50+; The Epic, a 120,000 square-foot fitness, arts, and entertainment facility; PlayGrand Adventures, an all-inclusive playground; Central Bark dog park; Chicken N Pickle restaurant and indoor/outdoor pickleball venue; and Grand Prairie Public Safety Building. The site also holds two hotels with a connecting convention center, six restaurants, and an indoor adventure park, as well as five lakes, a grand lawn, boardwalk, and space zoned for future retail opportunities.

The final puzzle piece the City of Grand Prairie sought was a crowning-jewel amenity that would exemplify the core concept of experiential art behind the new development and serve as a centerpiece for this iconic Southwest venue.

Idea

OTL was called in to design and construct a magnificent show fountain that would reflect the magnitude of this Texas destination and match the development’s central theme of making memorable experiences through iconic attractions. The firm’s artisans and technicians worked with Merriman Anderson Architects, Inc. as project architect and Studio Outside as landscape architect to deliver the fountain.

The water feature was designed in modular fashion to enable expansion as EpicCentral grows. To adhere to the City’s budgetary requirements, the team created the project within one of the park’s existing lakes, and it can be extended farther into the lake to align with potential future development. Since the lake has resident fish, OTL designed a modular system whereby the fountain equipment is mounted on steel piles that were driven into the lake bed. The design contains several unique features for easy maintenance, including baskets that can be raised above the water surface for simplified maintenance, and the system is robust enough to support the grand fountain displays as the destination evolves.

Never-before-seen experiential technology consisting of control and sensor equipment developed and patented by OTL makes the project interactive, allowing visitors to direct its special effects and watch as it interacts with their movement and poses. Large-scale projection and specialty lighting effects, along with music, are incorporated into the fountain, which features thrilling air-fired jets and robotic nozzles that propel water to heights of over 60 feet, creating a statement that is visible from all around.

Impact

The interactive show fountain at EpicCentral represents the City of Grand Prairie’s investment in a unique tourism and entertainment destination that adds to a quality of life everyone will enjoy. The water feature serves as the new development’s crowning jewel, an enchanting central gathering place that will grow along with EpicCentral itself, and an experiential attraction as exceptional as its environment for many years to come.