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Alexandria panel reviews concept design for Old Town pool replacement, debates integrated family area
Summary
Designers presented a schematic for a replacement Old Town pool and bathhouse that keeps eight lap lanes and adds a 0‑entry family area; public speakers urged traditional materials and a separate kiddie pool while city staff cited operational, budget and water‑quality reasons for the integrated design.
Alexandria’s Board of Architectural Review reviewed concept designs for a replacement of the Old Town Pool at 1609 Cameron Street during a public meeting. City project staff and consultants presented a schematic that consolidates two pools into a single eight–lane pool with a diving well and a 0‑entry family area, a new bathhouse and sustainability measures including photovoltaic panels and targets aligned with the city’s 2019 green building policy.
The proposal responds to an aging facility built in 1975 that designers said has experienced multiple filtration failures in the last year. The project area covers about 1.12 acres; the proposed bathhouse is roughly 3,375 square feet. Designers said the new pool would modestly increase the bather load from about 250 to about 280 and that the pump house and equipment room would be incorporated into the new building to improve efficiency.
Board members and neighbors focused their comments on materials, circulation and safety. Resident and Old Town Civic representative Steve Malone said he supported the project overall and the solar goals but urged use of traditional red or blonde brick or precast elements rather than weathering wood and raw concrete, and he recommended retaining a separate kiddie pool rather than integrating the shallow play area into the main pool. "I think it would be better if it was just standard modular red brick and blonde brick or precast rather than a combination of weathering wood and bare concrete," Malone said.
City recreation staff and project managers responded that code and operational considerations shaped the integrated 0‑entry design. Jack Burand, deputy director of the Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, told the board that smaller separate pools can be harder to maintain in water quality and that the integrated, beach‑entry model is popular at the Warwick pool. "From an operational point of view, consolidation is easier to maintain and more budget‑sensitive," Burand said, adding that the project team must also meet green‑building requirements.
Designers described the bathhouse plan as a simple pavilion with check‑in, separate male and female locker areas and a universal changing room, a lifeguard station and a first‑aid room. Most of the building will be naturally ventilated; only three small staff spaces will have mechanical cooling. The elevations call for red brick masonry up to 10 feet, glazed concrete masonry units above and wood‑slat screening on the upper elevations; the team said aluminum framed screened openings will allow airflow.
Several board members and residents raised concern that the glazed or ground‑face CMU could read as unfinished gray block at a distance. The design team agreed to bring larger material samples and mockups showing the wood slat screening and the transition details between brick, CMU and slats at the next submittal.
Other notable project elements: the team said they added about 16 bicycle parking spaces near the entrance to help meet sustainability credits; rooftop photovoltaic panels are being engineered to cover building loads during the season and to export surplus energy to the grid during shoulder months; the event space west of the bathhouse is intended as a reserved patio and emergency/evacuation access and is not planned for food trucks; and the public artwork currently on the front lawn will be relocated, the team said, to the Braddock Road Metro Station this spring.
Public commenters also suggested site adjustments: Harvard Street resident Melissa Burns asked whether the entrance could be shifted farther to preserve more continuous lawn for public use and whether adding heating to lengthen the operating season had been considered. Designers said heating the pool to extend the season is a costly change not currently included in the schematic, though staff said they are researching shade structures and temporary seasonable shadings to improve user comfort.
The BAR did not take a final design vote; the board adopted the meeting minutes from the previous hearing before taking up the concept. Designers said they will return with design‑development materials — including fuller elevations, larger material samples and lighting/landscape details — when the project proceeds to final approval.
