The historic Griffith Park Pool, in-built 1927 and as soon as the biggest aquatic facility in Los Angeles, has been dry since 2020. Now, as summer time heats up, residents are studying that it gained’t be crammed once more.
As a substitute, town is laying plans for a $28-million undertaking to demolish it and construct two smaller new swimming pools and a splash pad as an alternative whereas reconstructing the two-story pool home subsequent door. Metropolis officers say they hope to start the undertaking in summer time 2026 and full it in January 2028.
However for now, town’s Recreation and Parks Division web site merely lists the pool as “closed till additional discover.” A Bureau of Engineering spokesperson mentioned town has not picked a builder but.
The Griffith Park Pool, closed in 2020, was nonetheless dry on July 1.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Instances)
The brand new plan marks a pointy flip for a website that was as soon as scheduled for reopening in June 2022. Within the run-up to that date, the Eastsider information website first reported, metropolis employees discovered that the pool had a cracked basis, one too extreme to restore.
Recreation and Parks Division spokeswoman Rose Watson mentioned division Assistant Basic Supervisor Cathie Santo Domingo and a upkeep crew found the cracks within the pool. “Each time they’d fill it up, it wouldn’t retain the water,” Watson mentioned.
Throughout the closure, neighbors have complained and signed a petition, lamenting that working-class households in Los Feliz, Atwater, Silver Lake and East Hollywood have lengthy trusted that public pool for summer time reduction.
“I all the time questioned what was occurring with that. I’ve by no means seen water in it,” mentioned Christine Perez of Los Feliz, who was at a playground close to the pool Monday together with her 22-month-old son, Miles. “I used to be actually considering final week that it might be nice if there was a splash pad down right here.”
“Youngsters want a spot to go and a spot to discover ways to swim,” mentioned Marian Dodge, board secretary and previous president of the Pals of Griffith Park. She mentioned the group is “really thrilled that they’re lastly going to go forward and make the mandatory repairs. … We’ve got been assured that it’s totally funded.”
A metropolis Bureau of Engineering report says the brand new undertaking will embody “demolition and reconstruction,” changing the outdated pool with a brand new competitors pool measuring 25 yards by 50 meters (as much as 12.5 ft deep) and a “coaching pool” splash pad that’s 25 yards by 25 meters (as much as 5 ft deep), together with reconstruction and rehabilitation of the positioning’s two-story Spanish-style pool home and enhancements to altering and bathe areas and ADA accessibility.
The brand new swimming pools are meant to deal with year-round use, incorporating electrical pool heaters, salt water and UV gentle water therapy.
Lengthy generally known as the Municipal Plunge, the pool at Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Boulevard measures about 225 ft by 48 ft. It was town’s largest aquatic facility till the arrival of Hansen Dam Recreation Space, in-built 1940 within the Lake View Terrace space of the San Fernando Valley.
“ the L.A. River runs proper behind the pool?” mentioned Dodge. “The water stage behind the pool is so excessive, they had been unable to concrete the river there.” Because of this, when the pool was constructed, it “was described as a concrete boat floating on high of this sand and dirt. It was form of dangerous at the start, however they did it.”
At one level, the pool’s capability was put at 562 individuals.
“They’d have canoeing classes and water parades,” Dodge mentioned.
Now neighbored by tennis courts, a playground, a soccer discipline and Los Feliz Nursery Faculty, the pool was open till late March of 2020, when town shut a number of recreation amenities within the early days of the pandemic. It lies inside Metropolis Council District 4, represented by Nithya Raman.
On Might 21, town Board of Public Works approved hiring Perkins Eastman to do $2.4 million in architectural design and engineering work on the swimming pools and bathhouse.
The concept of progress on the pool is reassuring, Dodge mentioned, given the idle state of the park’s pony rides and merry-go-round, each closed since 2022 for varied causes. The L.A. Zoo, additionally in Griffith Park, stays open however mired in a authorized battle over cash between town and the Better Los Angeles Zoo Assn.
In all, town operates 57 swimming pools (28 seasonal, 26 year-round and three camp swimming pools) and eight splash pads. As of July 2, eight of the swimming pools had been closed.
The closest city-run swimming pools to Griffith Park are Echo Park, Hollywood and Glassell Park. Griffith Park additionally contains swimming pools at Camp Hollywoodland and Griffith Park Boys Camp.
