A replacement facility for competitive aquatic sports and community recreation on an iconic beach site, serving as a centerpiece for a new public urban space.

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The location for this Aquatic Complex is an iconic site on Belmont Beach where the city meets the sea. The facility will be a space for competitive aquatic sports, community recreation, water therapy, and children’s interactive water play.

The City requested that this new Urban public space be for everyone, even non-swimmers, who want to gather at the beach. To address this and future sea-level rise, the complex will be raised seven feet above natural grade, creating an artificial plateau or plinth which is easily traversed up and down with continuous steps and ramps. The steps will also provide places to hang out.

Long Beach and the original Belmont Pool have a long and illustrious history of 75 years of competitive and recreational swimming, with a long list of world class athletes and coaches who have participated in the NCAA and Olympics. Guiding the creative process and informing the architecture has been the relationship between form and performance of both a water athletes’ body and nautical architecture.

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Site : 5 acres

Facility 150.000 sf

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Design Architects: RoTo Architects

Executive Architects: HED / LA

Pool Specialists: Hastings+Chivetta