APPENDIX A
SWIMMING POOL
This report recommends a pool (approximately 5,00 square feet) designed to meet a variety of needs, with separate areas for instructional, competitive and fitness swimming and for diving. Special provisions will be made for the handicapped.
Any multiple purpose facility necessarily compromises some of the proposed functions. The proposed design minimizes these compromises and adequately meets the needs of all of the proposed user groups. Following are details of the design.
Main Pool Area. The pool is designed to accommodate all levels of swimming skills. Swimming proficiency levels are physically divided from each other. The main pool is actually three pools in one. The shallow end of the pool contains water which varied in depth from forty-two inches to five feet. This portion of the pool will be used primarily for recreation purposes and for the teaching of swimming. The deep water area contains water from five feet to eight feet in depth. Most public pools today do not have diving boards. Should boards be desired, water depth must increase to eleven feet.
Competitive Swimming. The third function of the main pool area is for competitive swimming. This pool is an official short-course pool, seventy-five feet, one inch long with six swimming lanes, each of which is seven feet wide. The pool can be used for major competition. Other special provisions for competitive swimming which are proposed include a roll-out gutter system which minimizes wave action, tile lane markers and end wall targets, recessed anchors for lane ropes, starting blocks, backstroke flags, false start ropes, etc., and provisions for electric timing and for spectators.
Training Pool Area. The training pool area contains approximately 1,370 square feet. Water in this area should vary in depth from two to three feet. Provision of this area will make it possible to eliminate a wading pool.
Invariably, it is suggested that short-course pools use metric dimension, i.e. 25 meters (82'6") instead of 25 yards (75'). The Council for National Cooperation on Aquatics recommends the following:
"The short-course competitive pool dimension in the United States is 25 yards and is expected to remain so for an indefinite period. All competition indoors is conducted in the 25-yard course; 25 meters should only be considered as a secondary course. Outdoor pools, where possible, should be constructed with 50 meter competitive courses. Where funds do not permit the construction of a 50 meter course, a 25 yard course should be built. At present, there is little justification for building pools at 25 meters, since this dimension is not a recognized competition swimming course in the United States. There are too many 25 yard courses in existence to make it practical to consider changing to the 25 meter course in the foreseeable future."
Serious consideration should be given to installing a solar collection system for heating the pool water. Consideration should also be given to modified indoor-outdoor designs which will enhance the use of the pool during the summer months.
Sketch of the Proposed Pool
