And Do What's Necessary to Save It?A plan unveiled in recent City budget hearings to reallocate approximately $200,000, previously earmarked for Plunge rehabilitation, brought out hordes of Plunge supporters who were successful in securing a commitment that at least a portion of it would be retained for cosmetic and emergency repairs at the City's oldest swimming pool. Included in the current plans are interior painting and repairs of the roof over the pool.
While this seems like good news to Plunge aficionados, the future of this venerable institution remains bleak. Many dedicated Plunge supporters continue to believe that a paint up/fix up strategy can prolong the life of The Plunge indefinitely until funding is found for a real renovation, but the facts are that this 70-year-old building has reached the end of its functional life and is in imminent danger of collapse. The following history of The Plunge, which includes recent events related to its prospective rehabilitation, will be helpful to those trying to understand what the City should do with The Plunge and how individual citizens should become involved.
The Richmond Municipal Natatorium (known fondly as The Plunge) was built in 1925, as a result of an unsuccessful wildcat oil well venture by John Nicholl, who drilled 1,232 feet in 1913, producing no oil but a flow of over 200,000 gallons of fresh water daily. Nicholl put his faith in C.L. Cofer, who with his "Terrestrial Wave Detector" predicted a great pool of oil underlying Point Richmond. Cofer described great belts of blue rock, great dikes of yellow and blue oil shale, and a very large and well defined gas dome (Nicholl Knob) which was "the hand of nature pointing to her hidden wealth and which I do register with my Terrestrial Wave Detector." Cofer's marvelous device was a "series of electrical batteries strapped tightly around his body, with an indicating device of his own invention."
Shortly after Nicholl donated the oil well land to the City, a bond issue for the Natatorium passed almost unanimously. The site was chosen not only for the abundant fresh water supply, but also due to its proximity to San Francisco Bay. As was the fashion of the day, a mixture of salt and fresh water was believed to be therapeutic. Over the years, the salt water system was replaced with fresh water, and the major use became a mixture of recreation and therapy.
The Plunge became famous throughout the Bay Area for aquatic extravaganzas with big-band music, which accompanied performances by nationally-known swimming stars and casts of synchronized swimmers. At the time, it was the largest indoor pool in the East Bay, and now it is the oldest and largest remaining indoor pool in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The building structure is of predominantly unreinforced hollow clay tile covered with cement plaster (stucco). The steel trusses, which are so evident in the pool enclosure, support mainly the roof, but provide practically no lateral (seismic and wind) bracing. The pool measures 60 by 160 feet and holds approximately 365,000 gallons of heated water.
By 1976, 50 years after its construction, The Plunge's deterioration made it inoperable. The City engaged a San Francisco engineering firm to prepare plans for an ambitious rehabilitation that would put The Plunge back in business and improve the dressing rooms' appearance. The lowest bid of $509,000 (probably a bargain) far exceeded the $345,000 budget.
The Plunge was closed, and there was a serious possibility that it would never reopen. After protests from hundreds of citizens, the City formulated a new plan to spend just $276,000 from a community development block grant, addressing only the essential requirements for the facility to reopen. Interactive Resources, an architecture-engineering firm founded in Point Richmond only three years earlier, was engaged as both the architect and construction manager for the project. Technical expertise for an innovative method of relining old pipes was provided by Chevron through Walt Fauerso, who also headed up the Citizen's Advisory Committee which was instrumental in saving The Plunge.
Within the limits of the block grant funding and an additional $26,000 made available for facilities providing accessibility for the disabled, the rehabilitation work included repair of water lines, filters, and mechanical equipment; a fiberglass liner for the pool; painting inside and out; a new roof; a new chlorinating system; and upgrading of plumbing fixtures, lighting, floor finishes, and railings. An article in American City and County which featured The Plunge rehabilitation exclaimed, "A transformation took place which surprised even the most optimistic observers."
In 1977, after seven months of construction, The Plunge reopened looking great, but major breakdowns of equipment not included in the reduced scope of work continued to plague the building. Only a year later in October of 1978, The Plunge had to be shut down for two months while the original cast iron water pipes were patched at a cost of $6,000. Within the next ten years, the City had to shut The Plunge down every year or two for extended periods to make repairs on deteriorated mechanical equipment and plumbing.
In 1987, the City discovered that it had approximately $800,000 in a fund left over from Knox Freeway mitigation for the Kenny Park ballfield, which had been dedicated to The Plunge's use. Chuck Wofford of the Public Works Department wanted to find an appropriate way to spend the money, and this resulted in the City contracting with Interactive Resources to study the condition of the facility and determine how the funds could best be spent. The study was to concentrate on the structural system, the heat exchanger and boiler, painting, and roofing, but would also include other miscellaneous needs.
Toward the end of 1988, as the study progressed, it was becoming clear that The Plunge's level of deterioration and even the minimum cost of upgrading critical components to a level of basis serviceability would far exceed the $800,000 funded. Upgrading just the structure, exterior envelope, and utility systems was estimated to cost at least $1.5 million, and cosmetic improvements to dressing rooms would add another $200,000 There was no place where any significant portion of the funding could be allocated and not be wasted in the future, since complete repairs would remove the work.
Under the circumstances, the City decided to spend approximately $200,000 of the fund in an area of critical need: replacing the heat exchanger and the boiler, and removing asbestos from the mechanical room. The balance of the Kenny Park fund money remained unspent.
In November of 1989, Interactive Resources performed a Post-Earthquake Structural Evaluation of The Plunge. Observable damage included new cracks and aggravation of existing cracks in the hollow clay tile walls, new cracks and extension of existing cracks in the concrete slab over the mechanical room, spalling of concrete beams, and minor buckling of wood partitions. Damage was found to be moderate, and use of the building was not recommended pending further study. For a while The Plunge was closed, and the streets and sidewalks surrounding it were barricaded.
Later, the City installed temporary timber braces for some of the walls and reopened The Plunge, but the south end of the pool and one of the tennis courts remained roped off due to potential danger from the damaged south wall, the most likely to fall first in an earthquake. The engineering design for the bracing included the following disclaimer: "The intent of this work is to provide a temporary, expedient tieback system to reduce the possibility of separation of the exterior hollow clay tile walls from the roof and floor framing. Although safety should be improved, the building will still be hazardous in a complete seismic event". This expedient design did not include a seismic analysis or check of individual components for conformance with building codes. It is anticipated that a code level upgrade will be accomplished in the near future. This "temporary" system has now been in place 4 1/2 years, and there are no plans to upgrade it.
After the earthquake, there was an attempt to tap into FEMA funding for earthquake damage repair, but there was insufficient damage directly related to the earthquake to result in more than a few tens of thousands of dollars. It became clear that FEMA would not pay for a major upgrade of The Plunge structural system.
The cost of even minimal rehabilitation, which exceeded the only known source of funding, caused the City to reconsider its options regarding The Plunge, especially with respect to The Plunge's place in the overall City recreational program. To this end, the Department of Human Services retained a consultant, the Sports Management Group, to undertake a City-Wide Aquatics Master Plan study which included The Plunge, Kennedy Swim Center, Memorial Youth Center, and El Sobrante Swim Center. This plan, completed in January 1991, reflected the Department of Human ServiceUs goal of "delivering programs and services that meet the highest priority of the neighborhoods." Of the four pool facilities studied, one does not exist; two others have been closed for years with no plans to reopen. Only The Plunge remains open, and it is in danger of deteriorating to an unusable state. In fact, the City-Wide Aquatics Master Plan states, "The [Plunge] structure and building systems, however, are deteriorated to the point [that] the building may suffer complete structural failure within the next several years. If the City desires to save this registered historic building, major repairs and rehabilitation must take place immediately."
After reviewing the Aquatic Master Plan and with a better understanding of the true physical condition of The Plunge, the City Council decided in 1991 to take at least the first crucial step toward an adequate rehabilitation plan by engaging Interactive Resources to prepare construction drawings and specifications for a complete rehabilitation. The idea was that at least the City would know the true scope and cost of the work. The magnitude of the total funding requirement would be tied down, and potential sources could begin to be identified. Perhaps even a grant might come along, and the City would be prepared for immediate construction.
With the passage of three more years since the Kenny Park fund studies in 1987 and 1988, changes in building codes, continuing degradation of building components, and changes in the scope of repairs recommended by the City-Wide Aquatics Master Plan, a preliminary, projected rehabilitation cost in 1991 had risen to just under $3 million.
As a part of the final rehabilitation design process, Interactive Resources, the Sports Management Group, and the City conducted several public meetings to get detailed public input regarding the direction the design should take. As a result of the public meetings, even more detailed investigation of the physical conditions of the building, and continued changes in building codes and accessibility requirements, the rehabilitation program was further revised. When the plans were ready for bidding in September of 1993, the construction cost estimate had risen to just under $4 million, and with a 10 per cent contingency stood at nearly $4.3 million. This is approximately the same cost as demolishing The Plunge and constructing a new indoor swimming pool.
The fact that rehabilitation is now within the same cost range as a new facility is not at all surprising, considering that the existing building is nearly 70 years old, substantially past its original expected service life, and has never experienced more than a subsistence level of maintenance.
Questions have naturally arisen about why it will cost so much to rehabilitate The Plunge and why estimates have continued to rise. First of all, one must keep in mind that the original impetus toward rehabilitation which started in 1987 was driven not by the inherent requirements of the structure or the desires of the community, but simply by the objective of finding the best place to spend $800,000.
As the project developed, the program became driven by two more practical but very expensive objectives. The highest priority of these was a decision to correct the structural deficiencies from long-term corrosion and deterioration, and to increase the building's level of seismic safety. Second was correcting the excessive humidity conditions, not only to halt the moisture-induced structural deterioration, but also to reduce energy costs and respond to the community's desires for an environment acceptable to seniors and the disabled. Without these two driving objectives, the cost of rehabilitation would be a fraction of its current projection, but it may also leave the City with an unsafe and unusable facility. At this time, there appear to be several alternatives for the future of The Plunge:
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Tom Butt is founder and president of Interactive Resources, a 21 year-old
architecture-engineering firm based in Point Richmond. Mr. Butt is also an
ardent historic preservationist and was instrumental in the successful 1978
nomination of Point Richmond to the National Register of Historic Places as
a historic district. In addition to consulting services provided to the
City of Richmond for The Plunge, Mr. Butt or his firm have been the
architects or engineers for numerous rehabilitation projects in Point
Richmond, including the Hotel Mac, and the Pt. Richmond History Association
Building.