The new Lava Dance Club virtually added 5,000 square feet of space for less than $5,000 by installing air curtains and creating a year-round, unobstructed passageway into an aesthetic outdoor courtyard at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino.
Can air curtains add usable space to a nightclub?
Lava, the two-story, 22,000-square-foot nightclub at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York, sits next to a walled courtyard with ponds, a waterfall and cabanas. A 10 x 20-foot automatic overhead door separated the two, and it stayed closed about 90% of the year because of wind, heat, cold, energy loss and insects.
Turning Stone’s architectural department proposed air curtains. Berner built two custom units that work as one system, with a single control panel, a door-activated switch, a variable frequency drive across six motors and hot water coils for supplemental heat. The air stream blocks outdoor air, flying insects and cigarette smoke from entering the non-smoking club.
Now patrons move freely between the club and the courtyard more than nine months a year. The project effectively added about 5,000 square feet of space for under $5,000, and estimated heating and cooling savings are about $8,000 a year. Operations Manager Jerry Marrello says patrons rank the courtyard second only to the dance floor and sound system.
See how Berner engineered a custom air curtain for this 20-foot-wide opening. Read the full case study in the PDF below.
