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Swimming Pools

Posted by kmancer on March 18th, 2010

Sometimes people are very annoying about pools. If you suggest to an owner or an architect that adding a pool to a building might be a good idea, most times someone will leap into the conversation and say oh no, pools are expensive, they are hard to maintain, no one uses them, they are a waste of space, and on and on and on. It’s interesting then that a recent survey undertaken in the US by the National Investment Center for the Seniors’ Housing and Care Industry (NIC) found that only two physical attributes had a statistically significant relationship with the proportion of residents who were very satisfied—pools and woodworking shops.[i]

Where they exist, pools are mostly part of upscale communities, in Canada at least. In the US pools are common everywhere, partly because US communities are on average so much larger than Canadian communities that the cost of expensive amenities like pools can be spread over more units. Some projects don’t get great use out of their pools but believe they are useful for marketing purposes. I have also heard the reverse argument—that they are a bad marketing tool because people who will never use them resent the fact that they will be paying for them. This objection could certainly be overcome by good marketers. After all, some projects are very successful at encouraging people to use the pool. It is great exercise after all. There is even one project I know of that encourages outside people to use their pool for swimming lessons. The pool is completely visible from the main floor amenity area, which serves the double purpose of providing something for residents to watch while at the same time maximizing exposure of the project to the wider community.

That pool is a large one but most Canadian pools aren’t. They are practical for aquacise but not for swimming laps. They must also be practical from an entrance and exit perspective. Some places have lifts to get people into and out of their pool, but a much better solution is to angle the floor of the pool so that stairs (and lifts) aren’t necessary at all.

Whether or not you need a pool, you probably don’t need a treadmill. They are considered by many to be potentially dangerous for seniors. Interestingly enough, as I was trying to find some evidence for this statement on the internet, I found out that treadmills were originally used as a method for reforming inmates in prisons. Who knew?

[i] NIC, Seniors Housing and Care Journal, Volume 17, Number 1, 2009

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