Video: How Baltimore's neighborhood pools ignite joy and opportunity
One of the best things about the neighborhood pools we’ve designed in Baltimore is their sheer visibility.
On any summer day, you can drive over and see them in use. There are children smiling, families relaxing, people learning to swim and communities coming together. They are openly embedded in the hearts of their communities.
That’s not always true in architecture. Often, the people who rely on a given building are benefiting from it behind walls and facades. While that’s great, I’m so glad the magic of these pools — the smiles they make possible — is there for anyone to see.
Late last summer, I visited the three pools we designed with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks (BCRP) to secure photography and video. We were determined to capture the spirit of these civic spaces, and I believe the video above achieves that goal.
In total, we’ve designed five pool spaces with BCRP. Three opened this past summer (Walter P. Carter, Towanda and Coldstream), and the other two will open in the years ahead.
It’s all part of a commendable investment by the City to improve public recreation access in Baltimore and to reset equity gaps that trace back to our nation’s history of segregated pools and lack of investment in recreation infrastructure.
And though each pool is similar, they are all nuanced. At Walter P. Carter the immediate neighborhood chose to take ownership of surrounding community gardens. The Greater Model design includes expansive softscape, added spray features and programming that is responsive to the community’s higher-than-average autistic population.
While swimming is inherently fun, these pools are about more than joy. The hope is they will help communities deal with increasingly warmer summers and provide the opportunity to increase swimming access to underserved communities.
As I reflect on designing these aquatic projects and the times I’ve spent visiting the pools since they opened, I keep thinking about optimism. That’s what you feel when you are at the pools; Optimism is what you hear when people talk about them.
Joy. Smiles. Optimism. Opportunity. These pools exude all those things — for everyone to see.
