Thinking “up” instead of “out” - Featuring numerous Polin slides, The Wave is considered a design gamechanger for waterparks and an agent of urban revitalization for Coventry. All images courtesy Polin.
The Wave and the Spire
Beneath an historic spire in Coventry, Polin slides grace a unique vertical waterpark by Joe Kleiman
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n the city center of Coventry, 18 miles southeast of Birmingham, England, sits the cylindrical building known as The Wave. Part fitness center, part waterpark, featuring six cutting edge slides from Polin Waterparks, the £37 million building is the centerpiece of an urban renewal project that links the city’s past with its future (see sidebar).
The Wave and the Spire It is in the shadow of the Christ Church spire, upon the remnants of the original 13th Century Greyfriars Monastic Church, that The Wave has been constructed.
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Although small villages had existed in the area, the story of Coventry begins in 1043, when Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, and his wife, the Lady Godiva, founded the church around which the city of Coventry began to develop. Almost two centuries later, in 1234 the Franciscan monks of Greyfriars Monastery began building a monastic church in Coventry, with a spire 230 feet (70m) tall. In 1538, the Greyfriar order was suppressed by Henry VIII and the walls of the church were torn down, leaving only the tower and its spire in place. The spire eventually blew down in 1551. The spire had been rebuilt by 1832, when Christ Church was built on the former
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