Project Spotlight:  Williams Drive Pool, Georgetown Texas

This project is a bit unique for me because I started using this site over 35 years ago as a toddler learning to swim and have a lot of memories hanging out here through the years.  It is an existing public swimming pool, and it goes all the way back to the days when Georgetown was a small place with few amenities.  Still, we did not need much to have a good time, and we could swim at this pool with it’s adjacent basketball courts.

The pool had/has? a rule that for 45 minutes of the hour, everyone can swim and then the kids have to get out for 15 minutes and let the adults take over.  We would swim until the whistle blew, then get out and play basketball until we were good and hot, and then return and cool off in the pool.  It was just about as good as it could get for a teenage boy and his friends.

Later a Sonic Drive In was built next door, which made it the trifecta of pool, basketball, and snacks, but until that point we would cap off the day with a trip a few blocks down to the 7-Eleven where we could sip Slurpee’s from the tailgates of our pickup trucks.

We had the opportunity to upgrade this pool and all these memories came rushing back.  The project was to add a parking lot (by removing one basketball court), make the restrooms accessible, and add shade structures.

We came up with a really cool design where all the structures where basically quarry blocks stacked and a metal roof over top.  I wish it could have been built, but the city went with a design-build contractor and they simplified the program greatly.  Still, the project was a success because we were able to perform the landscape, civil engineering, and architecture turn-key and improve a local fixture for the benefit of all the citizens.  Now, hopefully, many other kids can enjoy this park for decades to come.

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