Remember 'Big'? Check out giant Smale Park piano

This one is different. In a big way.

In a you-see-it-from-a-mile-away way.

Jack Klosterman's latest feat of engineering for The Verdin Co. is colossal in both size and in ambition: The Cincinnati bell and clock manufacturer's latest public project is the Smale Riverfront Park's giant foot piano.

The one-of-a-kind musical instrument will be installed at the park's P&G Go VibrantScape, which will include a series of play and exercise features, including a flying pig and water pumps and channels. A ribbon cutting and opening is planned for June 4.

Klosterman's task was simple: Park officials asked him to imagine an interactive musical feature that would get park visitors of all ages moving.

The result, from the player's perspective, is also simple. There are two parts to the musical instrument: the piano system and the tubular bell system.

Each key has a sensor that connects a striker on an individual bell. To play, you simply step on the sensor circle. Thirty-two notes correspond to 32 bronze bells that hang from a beam.

But the building process, which started in November, was anything but simple. They had to make sure the piano was strong enough to survive a lot of use from a lot of people (and be nonslip so those people won't get hurt).

The biggest complication? The electronics, Klosterman said.

He had to design an instrument robust enough to handle all types of weather in every season.

"It's like how you can't leave an iPad out in the sun or in the winter," he said.

Smale Park could also flood, which happened earlier this year, so Klosterman had to design it to be easily removable with a crane. But before he could even worry about rising waters, Klosterman just had to make it work.

First, the team repurposed load sensors, which are used to weigh automobiles, and installed them inside the 6-foot-long keys (the keyboard is about 20 feet long in total.)

"We've designed all of it from scratch," he said. "You can't go buy it off the shelf. We tried."

The bells are also special, Klosterman said. They aren't quite one-of-a-kind. More like two-of-a-kind. This set of scalloped, bronze bells are one of two of in the world, he said.

The biggest note is 12 feet long and weighs about 350 pounds (The total piece weighs at least 7,000 pounds).

The bells possess a warm sound that is both precise and powerful.

Klosterman included a feature to showcase the clear, clean notes. All of them.

He pre-programmed more than 100 songs, like "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "America the Beautiful."