Addition by design

Swimming Technique, Oct-Dec 2002 by Stott, Michael J

NEW SPACES FOR OLD PLACES

New swimming pools are popping up all over the country, many of which are complementing existing facilities and all of which are being designed and engineered to bring the community together in a healthy and productive atmosphere.

Thad two brothers-in-law go to MIT. Both could swim, but the one we call "Top-of-the-Line Jim" failed to graduate, in part, because he refused to take the Institute's swim test. That was back in the early '70s when principle and petulance stood for something.

Today people kill for water time. And in 2002 in Cambridge, change is in the air. And it's the kind of change that Cyndi Lauper sang about so freely-the kind that changes everything. At the Institute, that would be big change, as in the $20 million that Al and Barrie Zesiger contributed as a part of $54 million in alumni donations that built a 110,000-square foot sports and fitness center.

The center's crown jewels, built after overcoming severe spatial and soil condition issues and around which almost everything revolves, are two swimming pools. Assistant athletic director and former swimming and water polo coach, John Benedick, did intense legwork for the Institute, visiting more than 20 facilities in preparation for design phase discussions.

His mantra is: "Programming prior to any design is key to building any facility. That's a discipline to which I think anybody who is going to build a project should enter." To that end, he programmed every hour of every day, 24/365, to demonstrate to doubters what the cost/benefits were and what subtraction of facility components meant to the Institute in terms of vertical programming. "It made a significant difference in demonstrating in very clear terms what cuts meant," he says. Now he has what he calls "the best pool in the country-for what we do."

Prep,lanning was critical to all of Swimming Technique's other four featured pools. Two private schools, St. Catherine's in Richmond, Va., and Hotchkiss in Lakeville, Conn., conquered the challenge of integrating imposing fitness centers (and pools) into limited space and existing Georgian architecture. Both schools' projects were designed and engineered by Ellerbe-Becket (Washington, D.C.) and Counsilman/Hunsaker (St. Louis). Both were also "in desperate need of updating their athletic buildings. They'd done a great job on the academic side," says Ellerbe-Becket's Margaret Flinner. "It's the athletics that always get left to the end." No more.

On the West coast, the Santa Monica Swim Center opened in July to rave reviews, replacing a public pool built in 1951, which was eventually closed down in 2000 after being "patched up" following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Finally, after several years of municipal machinations and a construction false start, the 50-meter gem has an eager following, including competitive and college users. The end result is an extremely attractive, user-friendly facility sandwiched between a main thoroughfare, parking decks and a college administration building.

In a galaxy far away, at the Hickory, N.C., YMCA, resides the shining Millholland Aquatic Center, featuring a 25-yard, eight-lane indoor pool that is home to three competitive swim teams, and a public that has embraced this complement to a 41-year-old, 50-meter outdoor pool. The recent addition of a kiddie shallow-water park, two 25-foot-high tubular water slides and 9,000 feet of expanded deck space have the locals feeling awfully good about the place where many of them first learned to swim.

Then there's my brother-in-law, Jim. Years later, he condescended to take the swim test-and passed. He still lives in the Boston area. And, as smart as he is and as much as he loves living in luxury, I bet even he'd take a dip in one of this year's profiled pools.

SANTA MONICA SWIM CENTER Santa Monica, California

"Response has been unbelievable. We have hundreds of people, including families, who come through here for the day," says Clark Dikeman, referring to the July opening of the Santa Monica Swim Center. The state-of-the art facility contains a 50-meter by 25-yard, eight-lane pool and an 80-foot by 75-foot, 10-lane instructional and recreational pool. These additions replace a smaller 33-meter job and adjacent 35-by-60-foot diving well built in 1951 that was damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and ultimately closed in 2000.

The project was made possible, in part, by a 48-year continuing partnership between the city of Santa Monica-which built, owns, runs and maintains the facility-and Santa Monica College on whose property the complex resides. "Land in an urban environment (Santa Monica is located by the Pacific Ocean just west of Los Angeles) is extremely expensive, so we opted to put as much water as we could into a small footprint," says Dikeman, Santa Monica Aquatics principal supervisor. Every available square foot of the site, which is surrounded by parking garages, the college's business department and a local street, was put to use. Pool equipment was placed underground.