Built in the ’20s, the deteriorating historic Plunge pool and building in Belmont Park is to be torn down and completely rebuilt with all-new, modern materials.
That’s what Dan Hayden, director of engineering for Belmont Park’s developers, Pacifica Enterprises Inc. told Mission Beach Precise Planning Board (MBPPB) in July.
Hayden clued the community in on Pacifica’s vision for redeveloping the Plunge pool, which has been closed for repairs since March 2014.
“The city owns both the pool itself and the building,” said Hayden, noting the pool has been closed four times in the past 90-plus years.
Hayden told the MBPPB, which makes recommendations to the city on land-use and other beachfront issues, that the pool building is structurally unfit and had to be replaced. He noted the situation was so bad, that at one point “temporary measures had to be taken to prevent (ceiling) debris from falling into the pool.”
The Plunge eventually had to be closed “for safety reasons,” said Hayden, adding, “it was unsafe.”
Hayden showed artist’s renderings of the new pool, which is to have a retractible roof and is to be built with modern technology and materials. He added the Wyland mural, which adorned one of the walls of the old pool structure will be reconstituted in the new one.
“The pool has had to endure a marine environment on the outside, and a humid environment on the inside,” said Hayden noting neither condition was favorable to the conventional materials used in the old building, which he said were literally “disintegrating.”
The idea in redesigning the Plunge for the modern era is “not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” said Hayden, who added the new structure, and its retractable roof, will be made of glass like you typically see in YMCA facilities.”
Hayden said the new facility will have a more open-air look and feel. He said the new structure will be aluminum, which he said is much more corrosion-resistant than steel. He added the retractable roof will provide better air flow into and out of the pool building, which will prevent moisture from getting into air cavities in the structure of the building and deteriorating it.
Hayden said there is an 18-month timeline for rebuilding the Plunge.
“We want to get the Plunge back in order, and reopened, so you folks can enjoy it as quickly as possible,” he said.
MBPPB voted unanimously to write a letter of support endorsing Pacifica’s conceptual plans for building an all-new historic Plunge pool structure.
