A site has been finalized for the new $3.5-million aquatics center at Palisades Charter High School. The area approved, just north of the intersection of Temescal Canyon and Bowdoin Street, is currently occupied by handball and basketball courts. The space is large enough for an eight-lane outdoor pool as well as a smaller instructional pool and a pool house. According to PaliHi executive director, Amy Held, the Aquatic Design Group (ADG) is designing the pool. ADG specializes in the design of competitive, recreation and leisure aquatic facilities and has completed over 2,000 projects. David Jay Flood Architects, a Santa Monica-based firm, will be designing the buildings. Founded in 1967, the firm originally focused on the programming, master planning, and architectural design of winter resort areas. Most recently DJFA completed the planning for all of the venues and villages for the 2012 Los Angeles Olympic bid. Rose Gilbert, 88, an English teacher at PaliHi since the school opened in 1961, started the pool campaign in the summer of 2005. ‘I had an epiphany after I had an accident while I was hiking in an Australian rainforest, ‘ Gilbert said. ‘I fell and hurt my head and didn’t think I was going to live. Suddenly it hit me that we need to have a pool at Pali.’ Gilbert said her hope is for all students to learn how to swim before they graduate, especially at a school where the mascot is a dolphin. ‘I asked all of the kids on our basketball teams if they knew how to swim and none of them did,’ she said. In addition to providing swimming lessons, the facility will accommodate PaliHi’s City champion swim teams and a new water polo team, Soon after her return from Australia, Gilbert donated $1 million towards the on-campus aquatics center in memory of her daughter Maggie, who was a swimmer. The project has moved slowly but steadily forward ever since. Approval had to come from LAUSD to build on its property, a site selected, a business plan developed, architects chosen and technical drawings made. ‘We couldn’t ask for money until we had the final pool plan and cost,’ said Maggie Nance, the school’s swim coach. ‘Developing the business plan was huge. ‘We’re planning on community access–before and after school hours and during vacations when the high school is not using it,’ Nance said. The goal is to also have the pool open to the community on Sundays. Once the plans were finished, the cost for the pool was set at $3.5 million. Gilbert was honored at a kickoff brunch in November and donated an additional $100,000 to the project. ‘With very little asking, we’ve already raised an additional $50,000,’ Nance said. ‘We’re hoping that residents will support it whether they have kids at PaliHi or not.’ The swimming pool committee is kicking off the fundraising drive by asking the community ‘Want to dive in?’ For $500,000, one can gain naming rights for the competition pool, $350,000 for the instructional pool title, $300,00 for the pool house title, $150,000 for the scoreboard and $50,000 per swim lane. There will also be a pool-house donor board, and for $25,000 one can be on the platinum level, $10,000 for gold, $5,000 for silver and $1,000 for a Friend of the Pool. Any amount between $25 and $999 earns the designation of pool supporter. On March 26, Nance learned that the Palisades High Booster Club voted to buy a center lane for $50,000. It plans to donate $12,500 a semester for the next two years. The pool will be used for lessons during the day and swim team and water polo (a new sport) practices after school. ‘We need donations,’ Nance said. Nance is estimating that it will cost about half a million dollars a year to run the facility but that rental fees from summer camps and swim meets will cover operating costs. All donations are tax deductible. Contact Amy Held (310) 454-0611 aheld@palihigh.org or Greg Wood (310) 459-0310 gwood@palihigh.org. Donations may be sent to the attention of Greg Wood at Palisades High School 15777 Bowdoin St, Pacific Palisades. Mark the check with the notation ‘pool account.’
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