A career of thrills

Architecture alum redefines roller coaster designs

The Golden Ticket Awards could be called the Oscars of the amusement park industry. In 2023, Jake Kilcup ’08, ’09, with his Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) team, accepted three trophies in Vienna, including the Best New Roller Coaster of 2023 award for ArieForce One at Fun Spot America Atlanta. 

“I enjoy rollercoasters, personally, thanks to the thrill and adrenaline rush,” he said. “I have always been into snowboarding, skiing and dirt biking, and riding coasters offered a similar feeling without the risk. I also enjoy how challenging the industry is. We have to stay on the cutting edge and push the limits, so to speak.” 

You have to perform at a high level in all aspects, not just a couple. Also, we’re creating memories for families and to bring joy to people’s lives is really fulfilling. Jake Kilcup ’08, ’09, architecture alum

Kilcup added a twist, a turn and a few 360 loops to how he uses his University of Idaho bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture. The Iongtime Hayden resident is director of engineering at RMC, one of the world’s best-known rollercoaster manufacturers. Innovation is key to the team’s success; they also took home the Best Innovation Golden Ticket Award of 2023 for their high-tech system for refurbishing wooden coasters. 

“You can design a ride with an incredible experience, but if it doesn’t entice people to get on, the parks won’t buy it and the people won’t ride it,” Kilcup said. “You must perform at a high level in all aspects, not just a couple. Also, we’re creating memories for families, and to bring joy to people’s lives is really fulfilling.”

Wood, steel and smiles

Kilcup and RMC specialize in replacing wooden tracks with steel. Kilcup takes the blueprint of a wooden coaster’s design and uses an RMC-patented software program to visualize what will be built and identify what will be required to construct the coaster on-site.  

He must be precise about the amount of steel needed to create a new version of a ride like the New Texas Giant coaster that RMC refurbished between 2009 and 2011 at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. When it originally opened as the Texas Giant in 1990, it was the tallest wooden coaster in the world. 

“We take older coasters and modernize them,” Kilcup said. “We give those coasters new capabilities they didn’t have before, like the ability for the track to let riders go upside down nine times in one layout.” 

RMC also builds coasters from scratch, buoyed by steel supports, as illustrated by the ArieForce One at Fun Spot America Atlanta, which features a 154-foot lift hill and steep first drop visible from nearby Highway 85. 

Attending the opening of one of his designs is vital to Kilcup.  

“After working on a project for up to 16 months, we invite media and influencers to experience a new rollercoaster for the first time, and to see their cheering and clapping and smiles is the best part of the job,” he said.

From architect dreams to amusement parks 

Growing up in Gig Harbor, Washington, teenaged Kilcup often drew and sketched comic panels and even rough designs of homes.  

“Getting down those perfectly straight T-squares was satisfying to me, and I realized I enjoyed that type of art that had just enough science in it,” he said. 

Enrolling in U of I’s architecture program felt like a natural next step for him.  

“It was challenging. It made me rethink things after the initial design, and I liked how it included engineering and creativity,” he said. 

Having a degree in architecture armed him with the breath of skills needed for his new trade: engineering, creative design, problem-solving, business and marketing. 

“It teaches you to work hard and always push your designs to be better,” he said. 

Once he completed his U of I schooling, and fresh off an internship at an architectural firm in Coeur D’Alene, Kilcup was married and found a job at an OfficeMax, which ended up being fortuitous.  

“I was always chatting with small business owners, and I built a rapport with the daughter of the owner of Rocky Mountain Construction. She told me about this new track system her father invented, how he needed to figure out how to build it,” Kilcup said. “I wanted to help, so I got a job interview later that day and became the first non-family member of this family business in 2009.” 

Fourteen years later, Kilcup has traveled the world visiting the amusement parks where his coasters are built, including Canada, Poland, Sweden and Japan. He has enjoyed the exhilarating ride the past two decades of coaster design evolution allowed him to take. 

“New tools and manufacturing capabilities have taken us to a level where designers are pushing the limits of the industry, where they want the tallest and fastest and longest rides,” Kilcup said. “RMC is all about high thriller rollercoasters and we’ll continue to innovate in that area.”

Article by David Silverberg, Freelancer

Photos provided by Jake Kilcup, alum

Published in September 2024