From Fun Water to Olympic Size— How Do We Choose?

by: Dana Vollmer-Grant, Assoc. AIA, WELL AP, CBSM

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Aquatics

Architecture

Sustainability

When planning for a new community aquatic center, few topics generate more debate than pool size and quantity.

Each question comes with numerous (often opposing) answers. That is, each course of action has numerous benefits—yet seemingly just as many trade-offs. When two smaller pools are found to be preferable to one larger pool—how did that happen? When stakeholders go for the Olympic 50 meter pool versus the 25 yard by 25-40 meter version—why did they do that?

In my work, I collaborate with communities to explore their programming needs, helping them to understand which users and age groups will find which features most attractive, and which depths and water temperatures are most preferable—all guided, of course, by considerations of budget, feasibility, and available land. Success in this decision-making process requires drawing clarity from a complex mix of numerous factors. The outcome is built to last for generations.

One pool or two?

Often the debate of one or two pools arises from the communities’ aquatic programming demands and available funding. For instance, the city of Irvine, California, sees massive ongoing interest in aquatics, and has the budget to match. Not every community has the demand that Irvine sees. The city runs a competition-focused center with two 50 meter pools, and is now in the process of constructing a third pool that will serve high school aquatics teams, clubs, and recreation programs, while also functioning as an elite competition venue. Then there are centers that focus solely on swimming lessons—with a set of options that might not go far enough for most cities. In Walnut Creek, the facility at Splash Swim Center offers shallow warm water, in-water bench seats, and parent viewing rooms. Cities tend to look for programming that fits in between Irvine and Splash. They’re meeting the community’s needs by piecing together programmatically appropriate elements that fit within their budget. When each of those factors comes together and the community has had its say, the available options turn out to more limited, and the decisions more clear, than people might initially assume.

That’s why, for the many municipalities we have worked with, the decision often comes down to two options: one 50 meter pool, or a fun water pool and a 25 yard by 25-40 meter competition pool. In terms of square footage, they hold roughly the same amount of water. But for sheer diversity of programming, the two-pool option is a major community benefit. Last summer in Santa Ana, we helped lead the city’s stakeholders through an in-depth process that led to consensus: they would replace their 50 meter pool with a two-pool scheme that better met the community’s needs. Similarly, in Portland, Oregon, the ELS team led the community in the vision for an indoor facility housing two separate pools: a 30 meter competition pool and a fun water pool.

Since each community has a different context, let’s break down the four general categories of pools: fun water, 25 yard by 25 meter, 25 yard by 30-40 meter, and 50 meter.

For the East Oakland Sports Center we designed an indoor fun water pool with a mix of elements including three lap lanes, zero beach entry, lazy current, and a large slide into a plunge pit.

Fun water pools

Fun water pools provide play space for kids and vital water-awareness skills that help save lives. These pools often have zero beach entries, lazy currents, slides, and additional lap lanes. The water is kept at a warmer temperature to keep people comfortable when getting in and out of the water. The warmer lap lanes are an ideal location for swim lessons. For the sake of growing safer around water, fun water pools contain elements that we might find in the outside world, such as beaches, rivers, and drops into the water. At the East Oakland Sports Center, we designed an indoor fun water pool with three lap lanes, zero beach entry, lazy current, and a large slide into a plunge pit. Most fun water pools are kept between 81 to 84 degrees.

Fun water pools are a good choice for areas with a large percentage of youth and seniors and significant populations of people who don’t know how to swim.

25 yard by 25 meter

This size allows for traditional 25 yard USA Swimming competitions. With a width of 25 meters, the pool has ten lanes at 25 yards long, offering an eight-lane competition course and two lap lanes for warm-ups and warm-downs. Depending on the size of the facility’s swim teams, this pool can support a practice while still offering a few lanes for general lap swimming.

Water polo teams can install wall-mounted goals in the 25 yard direction, putting the field of play over deep water. If the pool is an all-deep pool the course size could increase by having the field of play run in the 25 meter direction. This size pool is great for training, recreational water polo, and high school teams. In Piedmont, California, our new community aquatic center has a 25 yard by 27 meter pool that uses so-called niches to provide a space for the floating goals, which are preferred but not required. Competition pools are kept between 78 and 81 degrees.

For diving and artistic swimming, the depth of this pool is an key attraction. In most competition pools, there is a section, located at least at a seven-foot depth, to allow for starting blocks. Roughly in this same area, a diving well can be designed to the depth required for the height boards and artistic swimming.

These pools are a great choice for communities expecting high demand for recreational lap swimming and a competitive need for swimming teams and water polo players.

25 yard by 30-40 meter

As the pool length increases, the number of simultaneous activities increase. The pools length can extend from the 25 meter version above to 40 meters, with added variation coming from a movable bulkhead. This pool can offer from fourteen to seventeen lap lanes—up considerably from the ten lanes above—and is suitable for communities with significant demand for lap swimming. The greater length allows for additional shallow-water lanes if desired, while still offering a deep, eight-lane competition area for swimming, water polo, dive, and artistic teams. A bulkhead can be added to create separate zones for simultaneous programming, as at Balboa Park Pool, where a bulkhead separates lap lanes from shallower water stair entry—effectively creating two pools for the price of one. During competitions, bulkheads give organizers options for the direction of swimmers, relative to spectator seating.

Water polo courses come in a range of sizes; for men, the official Olympic-size course is 20m x 30m; for women, it is 20m x 25m. To have an elite water polo course, the pool must be an all-deep 35 meter pool to account for floating goals, or it must extend to 40 meters to allow for a slope to shallower water or a bulkhead. However, since water polo courses range in lengths in USA competitions, most of our clients desire a pool built to National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) standards for California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championships which can be set up with floating goals in a 30 meter pool.

This pool may be desired if your community has an increased demand for lap lanes or, at prime hours of the day, requires available lanes for swim teams as well as lap swimmers. Pools of 30-40 meters in length allow for greater options in creating water polo courses.

The additional 50 meter Olympic size pool at Legends Aquatic Center at UC Berkeley provides ample space for swimming competitions, water polo, diving, rec teams, masters swimming, and public open swims.

25 yard by 50 meter

A 50 meter course is the official Olympic-size swimming competition pool. This course, known as long-course swimming, runs from June through August, while short course, or the 25 yard length course, runs from September-May. The 50 meter pool provides twenty-two lap lanes at 25 yards long, with ample area for deep water competition courses, and it can extend through movable bulkheads. A 25 yard swimming competition will have plenty of space to run an eight- to ten-lane competition course; it can have either an additional competition course or sufficient space for warm-up and warm-down lanes, as at ELS’ Legends Aquatic Center at UC Berkeley. Here, the additional 50 meter pool provides lane space for both men’s and women’s collegiate swim team, water polo, diving, rec teams, masters swimming, and public open swim.

The 50 meter pool provides an elite level water polo course with floating goals while providing lanes for warm-up and warm-down. Its size means that diving, swim team practice, and recreational swimming can all take place simultaneously. The length allows for a variety of pool depths to accommodate diving and artistic swimming, alongside lap swimming in shallower lanes.

This pool is a great solution for when Olympic long course swimming and elite level water polo courses are in demand, or if there is strong demand for many large aquatics programs to be running simultaneously. This pool offers approximately twenty-two 25 yard lap swimming lanes.

If money and land availability weren’t a factor, the facility to cover the broadest possible spectrum of activities would offer a 50 meter stretch (that is, a 50 meter pool and a bulkhead) or 30-40 meter competition pool; a 6-lane teaching pool; and a fun water pool. In fact, that arrangement resembles our work at the Elk Grove Civic Aquatic Center, which meets the training needs of elite level swimmers (with the 50 meter pool), provides warm shallower water for lessons and water aerobics classes (in the six-lane teaching pool), and, at the fun water pool, helps introduce the community to the water while imparting vital safety skills.

Each community is unique, and there is no single solution when designing an aquatic center. When stakeholders begin a process of aquatics programming, it can be frustrating that certain options sometimes come at the expense of others. But with time, an in-depth engagement process, and careful planning, we have seen how communities come to rally around the decisions that fit their needs and meet the budget. It’s those moments we strive for.