The Best Seats
In The House

On the west-end of the Island of Montreal lies the City of Kirkland. This small suburb serves as a residential community close to the hustle and bustle of downtown Montreal. Originally incorporated as a municipality in 1961, Kirkland was merged into the City of Montreal in 2002 becoming a borough before eventually being re-constituted as an independent city in January of 2006.

The City of Kirkland approached our team in September 2018 as they were looking to secure product and pricing information for a pair of top-roll gym divider curtains as they prepared the 2019 city budget.

After a couple of in-person visits by our installation team, we promptly provided detailed pricing and specifications which aided us in providing the best possible solution for their needs. 

When it comes to your school or local gymnasium, much of the activities that take place on the court are athletic in nature and make up the majority of the time and energy spent in the space. For many facility managers and operators out there, getting bogged down in the day-to-day can sometimes get in the way of ensuring that these types of athletic spaces are working for us as well.

The fact is, your gymnasium should also serve your facility, be it a school or community centre, as an additional source of revenue. While this is common sense to many, there are a number of ways you might not have thought of that can contribute to your operation’s bottom line.

Rock and roll, bell bottoms, free love and extremely heavy folding gym partitions are just a few characteristics of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. While the former are relatively unthreatening, the latter has become one of the biggest safety concerns athletic facility operators face today.

After serving the purpose of dividing a space for a number of decades, the fact that many of these antiquated systems are still in operation today pose a variety of safety risks to both operators and participants.

Designed using heavy materials and often with not enough horsepower to operate them, these outdated gym dividers have made unfavourable appearances in the media over the past two decades, having caused a number of of injuries and even some deaths.

One of our most recent projects took us to the Bay of Fundy on Canada’s East Coast to help the Boys and Girls Club, one of our favourite organizations. With locations throughout Canada and the United States, these clubs provide children and youth with life-changing programming and community-based services that aid them in developing the skills required to lead a healthy, productive life.

We have had the pleasure of working with a number of these clubs across North America and this time, we were happy to be involved with some work at the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Gymnasium use for a multitude of activities is on the rise, leading to a greater demand for proper and safe separation of these athletic spaces to maximize their functionality.

Whether your facility is in need of an upgraded divider for safety reasons or you are shopping for a new divider for an existing gym or new build, there are a number of factors to keep in mind during the planning process.

While relatively simple in design, their nuances can impact not only how the curtains themselves perform but also how they impact the functionality of your gymnasium as a whole. Here’s a few design elements to keep in mind before you purchase your next gym divider curtain.

The safety of a gym is only as good as the condition and configuration of the equipment inside of it. With a rash of unfortunate incidents over the past decade or so, a large cohort of facilities have been busy assessing and repairing or replacing equipment known to be the root cause a variety of safety hazards inside gymnasiums.

While much of these problems are overhead, such as ceiling-suspended basketball systems, light fixtures, and roof trusses, another large area of concern for operators are outdated dividers and partitions.

Many of these products were installed throughout the 1970s and 1980s and as one can imagine, leaps and bounds have been made in the design and development of such products since.

These existing partitions were often constructed using heavy materials and were rarely equipped with safety mechanisms such as two-key operation and sensors to detect obstructions when opening or closing.

As such, a large portion of what we do is assess the safety of these existing structures, which usually require replacement.

Operating across three campuses in eastern Ontario, St. Lawrence College (SLC) is one of the province’s leading institutions when it comes to applied arts and technology. Home to roughly 7,000 full-time students, SLC specializes in programs such as applied science and computing, baccalaureate nursing, business, community services, justice studies, applied arts, health sciences as well as skilled trades and tourism.

As the institution continues to experience exponential growth, 2018 was the year that saw exciting projects come to fruition at the school’s flagship campus in Kingston. As part of the Hello Future Capital Project, renovations and a new build to the Student Life and Innovation Centre got underway after over 80 percent voted in favour of supporting the project in a student referendum.

Gymnasiums, once used solely for basketball games or gym class in public schools during the 1960s and 1970s are now becoming popular venues for social and community events. Over the decades, the large open space design of gymnasiums has been used as a makeshift setting for a large capacity banquet or an occasional awards assembly for the small local community. Fortunately, in the designs of today’s gyms, this multi-purpose concept has been embraced and modernized to accommodate an array of activities from sports and athletics to community events.

Making Your Facility a Winner

Whether you are interested in renovating and upgrading an existing gymnasium or creating a brand new one, solutions are available. With sports equipment, seating and lighting options available come in an array of designs ranging from stationary to foldable and even retractable, to allow space for other purposes. Gym divider curtains are also available to section off spaces for various events. Additionally, there is a wide selection of flooring options as well, all of which will help in making your facility a winner. 

Athletic programming is a crowded space. With more participants perhaps than ever before, facility owners and operators are always scrambling to not only offer cutting-edge equipment but to also ensure every inch of space is properly utilized.

When it comes to gymnasium equipment, the list is long and highly customized. With expansions in program offerings in educational and community-based facilities, the need for additional equipment is seemingly never ending.

For operators of busy facilities, the need for speed and automation is growing with each day that passes. When it comes to educational facilities such as schools, colleges and universities, the gymnasium is typically a heavily scheduled location, catering to a variety of programming and athletic competition.

Multifaceted spaces such as gymnasiums require multifaceted solutions when it comes to the right equipment. Whether it is seating requirements, sporting equipment, safety padding or properly dividing the space, chances are the solution that is right for your gym is going to be customized in one way or another.

When it comes to  gym divider curtains, this sentiment could not be truer. Deciding to divide your gymnasium is a great way to add another level of versatility to the space and take on additional athletic programming. Choosing a gym divider curtain, however, is not something that should be taken lightly.