South San Francisco's $49 Million Makeover Is Making Waves

Where will a 5:30 a.m. lap swimmer in South San Francisco be swimming this winter? Through Nov. 25, it's Orange Pool, open weekdays at 5:30 a.m., with six lap lanes set aside for swimmers 13 and older, under the roof of what the city calls its only indoor municipal pool.

That answer has a deadline. The city's current Orange Pool schedule runs through Nov. 25. After that, the lap lanes move to a building next door that has been under construction since 2024. The new building does not copy the old one. It splits Orange Pool into two pools, and the one built for laps sits outside without a roof, in the wind off the northwest that people in South City know well.

The Calendar Through Thanksgiving

Orange Pool will close, and the City of South San Francisco's project page says the new facility is anticipated to open in late 2026. The city's July 23 construction update says the overall schedule was extended. Staff were still working out a recovery schedule and a timeline for closing Orange Pool and opening the new center, with Phase 1 completion anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2026. No opening day has been posted. For comparison, an April 2024 update in the city's archive expected the new center to open in summer 2025.

The city's FAQ also says Orange Pool will likely close briefly before the new building opens, so staff can move in, train, and test the building systems. No date has been set for that closure either. Here is what is posted for the rest of November:

The city has already started winding down programs. The Aquatics page says every Session 2 fall swim class was canceled, and Orange Pool is not taking rental applications "due to the upcoming transition and opening of the new Aquatic Center." The schedule PDF says it is subject to change and asks swimmers to check the city website for last-minute closures.

One Building Becomes Two Pools

The $49 million replacement, paid for through a Measure W bond sale the city completed in 2022, is a single-story building of 24,000 square feet. It has two pools: a 25-yard cool-water lap pool and a separate warm-water pool for lessons and recreation. It also has a swimmer's lounge, locker rooms, and multi-use rooms the public can rent.

Splitting the pools fixes a scheduling problem visible on the current schedule. At Orange Pool, the lap swimmers, adult swimmers, Baby/Parent Swim, and Rec Swim all take turns in the same water. A Monday evening Lap/Rec Swim gets two lap lanes, and the rest of the pool is a recreation area. With a dedicated warm-water pool for lessons and play, those uses no longer compete for the same lanes. The city has said demand for aquatics programs grew every year before the pandemic, "well beyond the pool's capacity."

The lap pool is the one outside. Construction updates describe crews moving "over to the outdoor pool" to set rebar for "the walls and sloped sides of the lap pool." The city's FAQ says the outdoor pool can be set up for full-course water polo with goals mounted on the deck.

What a Roof Would Have Cost

The FAQ is direct about why the lap pool has no roof. A roof plus the structure, glazing, lighting and ventilation it requires runs about $1,000 per square foot, and the city says it would have added about $42 million. That is nearly as much as the whole $49 million budget, and the city says the money is not available.

Since there is no roof, wind screening does most of the work. The city's FAQ puts it this way.

"Prevailing winds in South San Francisco come from the northwest, with occasional off-shore winds from the south. A robust wind protection element along these edges of the outdoor pool is accounted for in the project budget, as well as a modest wind protection element on the east side of the pool deck."

The rest of the design follows from that. Every exterior door into the indoor pool area closes on its own. The main entrance to the indoor pool goes through an enclosed lobby that blocks wind. The city acknowledges that some wind may still come in through the doors to the outdoor deck and says screening will reduce it. According to the FAQ, the design team and city arborists will pick tree species that drop fewer leaves and plant them where they add wind protection while staying back from the water. The plan calls for covers over the pools at night and robotic vacuums for any leaves that still land in the water. All locker rooms are indoors, including a separate men's and women's set that opens directly onto the outdoor deck, so lap swimmers do not have to cross the lobby wet.

The city also considered a bigger pool and decided against it. A 50-meter pool was studied and found infeasible because it would have cut into soccer, special events and lawn play at Orange Memorial Park. It would also have needed more parking and cost more to build. The project put its money into the park lawn and wind screens, and left the lap pool at 25 yards and outdoors.

Fixes to Long-Standing Complaints

Several design choices respond to known problems with the old building. The FAQ acknowledges that Orange Pool's changing areas "are small and often crowded." The new locker rooms are sized beyond typical recommendations for a facility of this size, with more lockers, benches, showers and toilets than code requires. There are also two gender-neutral family changing rooms, and one of them has an adult-sized changing table.

Getting there on foot should also be safer. During construction, the city added temporary rumble strips for people crossing from the Tennis Drive parking lot to Orange Pool. It plans a permanent raised crosswalk with a flashing beacon as part of Phase 1. The July update listed a new trash enclosure on Tennis Drive and said removing the construction trailers allowed grading and lawn installation to start between the building and Colma Creek.

There is a community mosaic too. Artists Rachel Rodi and Guy Fuerte held a public workshop on Aug. 15 at the Joseph Fernekes Recreation Building, 781 Tennis Drive, where residents helped make a permanent mosaic for the new center.

The Old Building Comes Down Next

Once the new center is finished, Orange Pool will be demolished to make room for parking and park features. The city expects the full project, including demolition, the new parking lot and the Veterans Memorial, to be finished in early 2027. An Aug. 26 city council staff report described Phase 1 design work as nearing closeout, with civil and landscape work continuing into Phase 2. That phase covers site improvements, landscaping and a Veterans Memorial Plaza.

According to the city's Veterans Memorial page, the new memorial will keep the Eternal Flame sculpture, the plaques and the flagpole. It sits inside the aquatic center's project boundary, is designed to host annual events, and is scheduled for installation in Phase 2 in late 2026. New plaques will honor South San Francisco veterans.

Where to Swim Between Pools

If the transition closure stretches into December, the nearest indoor option the research confirms is the Jean E. Brink Pool at Oceana High School, 401 Paloma Avenue in Pacifica. The City of Pacifica's aquatics page describes it as a 10-lane indoor pool open year-round. Adult lap swim is posted weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday evenings from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Adult drop-in is listed at $6, and passes are sold at the pool. Brink is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26.

The city's other fall plans for Orange Memorial Park and the waterfront are dry ones:

• Thanksgiving 5K, Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. This is the 53rd year of the run, held at Oyster Point Shoreline Park, 95 Harbor Master Road. Registration closes Nov. 13. Fees are $12 for adults and $8 for ages 13 to 17, and children 12 and under run free.
• Wreath-making workshop, Saturday, Dec. 12. Held at the Fernekes Recreation Building on Tennis Drive, with a family session from 9:30 a.m. to noon and an adults-only session from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Advance prices start at $30 for residents and $35.75 for non-residents.

To get updates on the opening and on how programs will carry over, sign up for the city's project newsletter through the project page.

A $49 million civic building changes how people use the park around it, and its parking, crosswalks and lawn shape the blocks nearby. If you'd like to talk through what projects like the Orange Memorial Park rebuild mean for homes near the park, Rick Lei is glad to go over the details with you. Let's Connect.