The San Francisco bay is not the first place most would choose to swim, thanks to its cold, dark water. But the Strada Investment Group and Trammel Crow company may have a solution for you: they’ve proposed a plan to turn an old pier into the Bay Area’s first public floating pool.
In addition to the 50-meter pool, the plan includes a protected cove for open water swimming, kayaking, and paddle-boarding, as well as shops, offices, and apartments. The space that the proposal would transform into this massive complex is Piers 30-32, which are situated between the Ferry Building and Oracle Bay and are currently used for parking.
Supporters of the plan say that the much needed pool space would provide more opportunities to get locals comfortable in the water. The developers say that they would partner with schools and nonprofits to help teach children how to swim. Steve Lacy, president of the San Francisco Aquatics Foundation (an organization which teaches kids to swim and reduce drowning rates) told the Mercury News that there’s a huge need for more pool space in the area.
“San Francisco is surrounded by water but there is a huge population especially of minorities and in socio-economically depressed communities that don’t know how to swim…we’re turning kids away because we just can’t put additional kids into each practice,” Lacy said.
Not everyone is supportive of the proposal though. There’s already a group of 70 people who live in the area that have signed a letter raising concerns to one of the agencies that must approve the project.
The approval process is another big hurdle that Strada and Trammel face, in addition to winning over public opinion. Piers are California state land, and they want to build offices, which means they must lobby state lawmakers for special legislative approval. They also need to get the city of San Francisco on board, along with the Bay and Conservation Development Commission, the California State Lands Commission, and the Port of San Francisco.
With so many different parties needed, the approval process is expected to be a long one. Therefore, even if they receive all their approvals quickly, the pool likely wouldn’t open until 2027 at the earliest.
this looks like an unashamed land grab of public property by private equity
This needs to go to the ballot to let the people decide if an invaluable public resource should be use to wall off the waterfront offering big tech a trophy waterfront campus whilst enriching private equity investors, or if it should be used to provide a park with open space to showcase the breathtaking natural views of the bay
No one is discussing the most pressing issue. Where is the warm up / cool down pool?
Easy, just jump over the edge of the comp pool and you have plenty of room to swim down.
Not a word about the massive office building that would take up most of the space, in violation public trust , enriching private equity investors whilst offering big tech a trophy over the water campus at the expense of everyone else, whilst 1 in 4 office buildings remain empty in SF, ,equivalent to 20 Salesforce Towers .. is this good city planning ?
If the goal is actually to help minorities and people from struggling communities to learn how to swim then let’s do it Strada group!
If it turns into who is willing to pay top dollar for pool space which is usually the case for big pool complexes in high income areas then take a hike Strada group!
Strada and Trammel are both real estate companies… can someone show me where they are interested in helping people learn how to swim? Need way more info with this article. Looks like a get rich from tourists idea to me.
The article doesn’t mention one word about the massive office space that would take up most of the space on the pier .. Y’a think Strada cares about teaching people how to swim ?
My understanding is that they want to build mixed-used housing in the area but there’s a lot of resistance from the locals. The pool is an attempt to sweeten the deal.
I’d prefer a Lombard version
Joseph Schooling was pissed and proposed his own 100 meter pool after this article
This would be amazing, but unfortunately SF has been resistant against even building new housing to fix their supply problem, so this feels unlikely.