Virtually amazing: virtual reality combines with the latest in high-concept rides and play structures for a leisure pool experience unlike any other.(Leisure Pools)

This dream facility offers an indoor wonderland of diverse aquatic experiences in a vertical cascade of wet fun for all ages. It is located in Mayfield, a fictional, mid-sized-Midwestern city.

In Mayfield, a community participation survey has been conducted and results indicate that a new indoor leisure aquatics facility is needed within the community, to be operated by the city's Parks and Recreation Department. During citizen workshops, residents indicated a desire for an "escape" from ordinary life in Mayfield. There was consensus for a leisure pool design theme of "a vacation from the ordinary."

This design provides that--and more.

For starters, movable roof panels automatically retract to let the sun shine in to 40 percent of the natatorium on seasonal days. The popularity of the family/special needs changing rooms have led the way to accommodating all age groups and needs with a megacabana changing room complex with shared lockers.

Let's start our tour at the top of the pools and work our way down.

The experience begins with a 250-foot-long inner tube slide that snakes its way from a 24-foot-high platform. The slide corkscrews around the Virtual Pool area, dives underground to blackness and finally skirts the perimeter of the Deep Pool and Aquarium before splashdown.

One of the most anusual features of this design is the Virtual Pool area. To understand this element, envision a 35-foot-diameter body of water with a movable floor and projection screen that creates an environment that can change by the hour or the day. Inside, any environment can be created. Think of the possibilities: