(Image: City of Seattle)
The only public swimming pool serving the neighborhoods around the Central District and Capitol Hill will close for a round of upgrades and overhauls to end 2025.
Seattle Parks says the $1.4 million Medgar Evers Pool project will include accessibility improvements, HVAC replacement, and renovation of the men’s and women’s locker rooms.
A study is being conducted to help determine potential structural upgrades for the 1969-built brutalist-style pool building part of the Garfield Community Center campus along 23rd Ave next to Garfield High School.
The work is expected to stretch from November until a planned January 5th reopening in the new year.
The final day of swimming in 2025 is scheduled for Sunday, November 9th.
The locker room upgrades will be especially appreciated with a full mechanical, plumbing, and electrical overhaul part of the plan.
(Image: City of Seattle)
The 24,000-square-foot public pool has needed its fair share of work in recent years. The pool was closed through the summer of 2022 for mechanical and electrical repair work and a December 2019 project that was hoped to only last 18 weeks stretched out ot a full year due to the amount of deterioration work crews found in the facility and a major water leak discovered at the end of the project,
The pool is used by swimmers for exercise, lessons, and events and is part of the Seattle Parks swimming pool system. Parks is suggesting alternatives including the Evans Pool on Green Lake Drive N and the Rainier Beach Pool during the 23rd Ave construction. The pool in the nearby YWCA is another affordable swimming option.
The Medgar Evers Pool upgrades, meanwhile, will be part of a busy time for its block with construction efforts for the Garfield Superblock being planned. The $9.5 million project broke ground in June and is hoped to reimagine the area around Garfield High School and the community center to create a Legacy and Promise Promenade with a .34-mile loop path and new community spaces including a new play area and parkour park, new sports courts, and a central plaza.
You can keep track of Medgar Evers Pool construction updates here.
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The Superblock would be a lot more useful if it contained an outdoor pool. Maybe we just can’t have nice things. They have one in west Seattle.
The outdoor pools are only open in the summer. That’s 9 months of swimming we’d be giving up for an outdoor pool. Why is that useful?
I agree that an indoor pool is more useful year-round than an outdoor pool. Colman Pool (in West Seattle) is pretty neat, especially with the salt water, but I don’t it would be a good idea to replace Medgar Evers with something similar. However, I’ve never loved the design of the Medgar Evers building. My dream would be to replace the building with one with tons of glass to let in natural light. I’ve seen public pools in other cities that are like a big glass cube where folks inside can see the outside world and sunlight can get it, and the lit up interior acts as a nice glowing “lantern” for the surrounding community.
It would be useful in that it would provide an option for those who want to use an outdoor pool the ability to do so, freeing up space in the indoor pools for additional swimmers. It would be a boost in capacity during the peak swimming season.
Clearly you’d keep the existing pool. Or if budget was no object then retractable roof. The existing hunk of concrete looks like its end of life
what an amazingly impractical suggestion. not only is an outdoor pool kind of a ridiculous idea to begin with in this city and in this location, but medgar evers already exists and is a useful and important asset we should be (and are) improving and maintaining. “maybe we just can’t have nice things,” are you serious?
I can’t imagine choosing to go to an outdoor pool in the CD when Lake Washington is just down the hill. I’d take the madrona beach swim area over an outdoor pool any day. Looking forward to these indoor pool upgrades for the chilly months!
Madison closed for most of the summer for bacteria. You go in first.
This pool is overdue for not only a facility upgrade but a programming one as well – I hope parks will bring back the jazz night and water exercise class after they finish these upgrades … that said the Rainier pool is a solid 20-25 minute drive from the CD, not sure how that’s a reliable option. The Y’s pool is sooooooooo depressing. I can’t believe the 2 most dense neighborhoods in the city have this single pool :(
I am glad to see they included accessibility. THe YMCA pool is horrible as far as accessibility.