Here’s the Public Workout Equipment We’re Getting at Butler Shores

A rendering of the new equipment at Butler Shores. Image: The Trail Foundation / Oro Design Group

A few months back, we alerted the more athletically-minded among our readers to the future of breaking a sweat at Butler Shores, with a few design options on the table for public exercise equipment to be installed adjacent to the Hike-and-Bike Trail by our friends at the Trail Foundation.

The existing workout equipment at Butler Shores.

Now that the Foundation has solicited community feedback on our workout preferences and sadly ruled out the “sweet ninja gear” option, we’re pleased to report that we’re getting some very effective installations from Kompan, a playground equipment manufacturer originally from Denmark but operating its U.S. headquarters out of Austin, making its choice as vendor kind of a no-brainer.

A few perspectives on the existing site and its context. Image: The Trail Foundation / Oro Design Group

The setup for Butler Shores as seen in the renderings from the Foundation is basically an outdoor-adapted bodyweight gym in a box, with rings, pull-up bars, and other features with as few moving parts as possible — as you’ll notice if you compare the new setup with the Kompan equipment showed off back in August, the Foundation has elected to eliminate some of the more complicated (and probably pricey) features, which included stuff like kettlebells fixed on vertical tracks and an “arm bike.”

A more detailed look at the equipment we’re getting — and what it does for you. Image: The Trail Foundation / Oro Design Group

That means this equipment will actually last, as many of our readers pointed out last time — Austin has a lot of fit people and they’ll probably want to use this stuff for many years, so better to install features with no chance of falling apart. 

More looks at the equipment on deck at Butler Shores. Image: The Trail Foundation / Oro Design Group

With landscape design at the site from local firm Oro Design Group, we’ll see some nice rubber tiles go down around the major equipment, with wood chips (sorry, “engineered wood fiber surfacing”) for the immediate surroundings. Other critical features include limestone seating blocks, a paved rest area with new shade tree plantings and a chilled drinking fountain that includes a bottle filler and dog bowl likely in the same configuration as our beloved new downtown water fountains.

An overhead site plan of the surrounding landscape improvements for the workout area. Image: The Trail Foundation / Oro Design Group

The Trail Foundation says it will conduct fundraising from 2020 to 2021, with the anticipated completion date for the new equipment in 2022. That’s a pretty fast turnaround time compared to some of the major projects in this area — who knows how long it’ll take the new Dougherty Arts Center next door, for one — and the fundraising for the equipment has been jumpstarted by none other than local booze titans Tito’s Handmade Vodka, which has pledged to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $242,657.50, which is exactly half the cost of the whole project. Isn’t it nice when your favorite local vodka brand values a healthy lifestyle?