(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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