After being closed since 2020, plans are finally in place for Boise’s historic pools

At its Tuesday meeting, the Boise City Council decided to move forward with plans for two longstanding swimming pools.

Under the plan presented by the Boise Department of Parks and Recreation, Lowell Pool will be renovated to retain its original design and a new pool will be constructed at Whitney Elementary School to replace South Pool. South Pool's structure will be preserved, with its future purpose to be determined at a later date.

Neither pool has been used since being closed for the season in 2019, and their futures have been in flux in the years since.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POOLS

Boise’s Lowell and South pools opened “just 10 days apart from each other in June of 1953” and are the only identical “sister pools” that are still standing today, Laura Bainbridge, director of Friends of Boise Historic Pools, said in an emailed statement.

“This was a grand investment in the postwar era to have two Bintz pools built so close in time,” Bainbridge stated. “The Boise sister pools came to be only after decades of public grass-roots efforts to build more public swimming pools.”

The pools, known for their bright blue, Art-Deco inspired entrances, were designed by architect Wesley Bintz. They are two of an estimated 100 Bintz pools to have been opened in the United States. Over time, however, the Bintz pools have fallen into neglect and disrepair, Bainbridge said.

Less than a dozen remain and fewer still retain the original design language, according to a map of the known Bintz pools that is available on the Friends of Boise Historic Pools website.

“These pools have been focal points of the Bench and North End neighborhoods for over 70 years,” Bainbridge stated. “They were Boise's first purpose-built swimming pools, second only to the privately managed YMCA and Natatorium pools.”

Bainbridge stated that her fear going into Tuesday’s meeting was that the Boise pools would face the same fate as other Bintz pools: falling into disrepair and neglect and failing to ever open again.

THE FUTURE OF THE BINTZ POOLS

Tuesday’s decision was many years in the making and a welcome decision from advocates concerned about the pools’ historic preservation, after their future had long been uncertain.

The members of the Friends of Boise Historic Pools who were in attendance for the council meeting were positive on the outcome. The organization, created in the wake of the pools’ closure in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, described the plan as a good compromise compared to sentiments from the council of previous years that was “ready to demolish” both pools.

“The council that heard all that public feedback when we started this wanted to do two new pools based on what they were hearing from families that needed places for their kids to go safely,” Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said.

Initial talks of building two new pools were tabled to be discussed at a later date, Doug Holloway, Boise parks and recreation director, said.

As time went on, plans shifted to recognize the historical significance of the pool sites due to push-back from the community and local organizations, council members said.

“We’re really excited, a new pool at Whitney sounds like it will be really great for the whole community and we love the commitment from council member (Jimmy) Hallyburton to find a reimagining of South pool, it not being torn down was our main goal,” Megan Basham, president of the Friends of Boise Historic Pools, said.

In a 2022 community survey for the most desired course of action for the pools, “renovating and re-opening the pools” received the most support among those surveyed.

“The community is eager for these pools to re-open,” the survey findings said. “Many respondents indicated that the pool closure in 2020 was a major loss for their families and neighbors.”

They were the only two pools in Boise to not reopen in 2021.

The city cited structural issues and a lack of ADA compliance as the compounding factors preventing their reopening, Bainbridge stated.

Holloway presented plans that would alleviate both of the issues and allow the pools to finally be “fully accessible,” he said.

“There is some overall damage from water and all the chlorine that for 71 years has been absorbed within the rebar and concrete,” Holloway said. “Overall there is a consideration that both locations seem to be in pretty good shape right now.”

Holloway said that the in-progress pool designs are constrained by the land they are on, which is owned by the city, and will require some land-use coordination with the nearby schools to be completed.

Due to the limited area the Lowell Pool is confined to, Holloway said that there wasn’t an option to construct an entirely new pool at the location. Instead, the pool will be renovated at its current location, 1601 N 28th St., nestled between the North End and Sunset neighborhoods just northwest of downtown and adjacent to State Street.

“We can rebuild the existing pool, correct the deficiencies and bring it up to code, but we could not renew an option to actually build a new pool at that site,” Holloway said. “South, on the other hand…we do have that option.”

The new South Pool will be built at Whitney Elementary, located located at 1609 S Owyhee St. on the Bench, about about five blocks from South Pool’s current location. An estimated 4,400 residents would be within a 10-minute walk of the Whitney Elementary location, compared to an estimated 2,100 residents that are within a 10-minute walk from the current South Pool location, which is just northeast of Whitney, Holloway said.

The hope is that the new pool will be a “destination pool” akin to Ivywild or the Natatorium, serving people from across the city in addition to the 4,400 residents that are in close proximity, Holloway said.

The pool relocation to Whitney Elementary has an estimated cost of $7.8 million, significantly less than the option for renovating the South Pool location, which had an estimated cost of $9.2 million.

The renovation of Lowell Pool will cost an estimated $9.2 million.

These estimations, presented by Holloway, were based upon cost estimates for the 2025/26 fiscal year.

Though cost was factor into the decision to relocate South Pool, Holloway pointed out that Boise has not gotten a new pool since 1998.

The new pool being made at Whitney Elementary specifically was of particular value to the community, Hallyburton said.

“We would be making a mistake not to consider moving to Whitney Elementary school,” Hallybutron said. “That’s a school that’s one of our lowest-income schools, we have a community center there right now, but there’s nothing that serves teens in that area. Every single one of those kids that live in that area, if they need to access South Pool, are having to cross over Overland to get there right now.”

Though the pool location had clear value, Hallyburton said that construction of a new pool had to be done with consideration given to preserving the history of South Pool.

“It doesn’t make sense to do that if we lose an opportunity for preserving some of the historic integrity at South Pool,” Hallyburton said. “We’ve done that at a number of different places, we’ve done that at the train depot. It’s not a spot for people to get off and on trains anymore, but it’s a great event center.”

Council members said that they will be looking to the public in the future for comment regarding what can be incorporated at the Whitney location, as well as what will be done with the historic South Pool.

“I think it’s a no-brainer to give that gift to the community without the degradation of the historic site,” Meredith Stead, council president pro tem, said.

McLean expressed satisfaction with the outcome as a balance between preserving the history of the pools and providing a valued resource for an area of the community that hadn’t seen a significant investment.

“What we’ve been able to do with this is respond to folks that care deeply about the history of these pools and the design and architecture, come up with a way to save one…but to look at how much more we can invest in our Bench," McLean said.

The council voted unanimously to move forward with plans to renovate Lowell Pool, and construct a new South Pool at Whitney Elementary School. Holloway said that the current timeline for the pools is to finalize the design phase in the coming months, start construction in the summer of 2025 and conclude construction in the summer of 2026.

“I have three generations of family members, including myself, that swam at Lowell Pool and I know how important that historic legacy is, but I don’t think that that historic legacy has to be separate,” Hallyburton said. “I think we can serve a lot of kids who are in desperate need of something in their neighborhood…and also get really creative in how we can do something special with this (South) site.”