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The solution devised by Wilson +\u00a0Newton placed the various swimming pools above the changing rooms and\u00a0cantilevered the sun decks and bleachers out over the utility lines, creating the building’s distinctive y-shape. The Toronto Daily Star<\/em> called the design a “sky swim” and noted the elevated pools were likely a Canadian\u00a0first.<\/p>\n The complex, which was to be built in two back-t0-back phases, consisted of a 50-metre Olympic pool, a shallow wading pool, and a diving pool with 10-metre high dive. Despite the city’s sporting\u00a0ambitions, the Beaches pool was designed without high-capacity\u00a0grandstands.<\/p>\n City parks commissioner George Bell said adding\u00a0permanent seating for an Olympic-sized crowd would be “folly,” Instead, he said the capacity could be added later, if necessary, using\u00a0temporary bleachers.\u00a0“Toronto might get the Olympics once in 50 years,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n Construction started on January 8, 1962 with the expectation the pools would be open for use by the summer. However, by May, 1962 it was clear the project was running behind schedule. The opening date was pushed\u00a0from July 1, to August 1, and then September 15. By November, the unfinished pool was beginning to become a point of frustration\u00a0for locals.<\/p>\n 1962 was a municipal election year, and\u00a0Ward 8 aldermanic candidate John Square used the state of the unfinished pool to attack the incumbent city controller, Philip Givens.<\/p>\n “Ward 8 is the most forgotten area in the whole city,” Square\u00a0said. “All you have received for your taxes in the last 10 years is a lousy swimming pool. It is a frozen asset that isn’t even finished yet.”<\/p>\n Square lost his election bid, but former Beach alderman Donald D. Summerville was elected mayor.<\/p>\n The Globe and Mail<\/em> reported the delay was largely due to a “a combination of circumstances and a lack of co-operation between different city departments.”<\/p>\n In the months leading up to opening day, the Toronto newspapers fixated on the potential for traffic problems and the lack of available parking spaces near the new 1,700-person capacity complex.<\/p>\n In the Globe and Mail<\/em>, Metro traffic engineer Sam Cass rejected calls for\u00a0a new parking garage at Woodbine Beach, citing the prohibitive cost.<\/p>\n “Many people who come to the area now, including those who come to use the swimming pools, will have to come by public transit\u2014at least we hope they will.”<\/p>\n “We provided 440 parking spaces for that pool and that’s enough,” said parks commissioner Bell. “Some people around this city wouldn’t be happy until we went ahead and turned the whole park area into parking space.”<\/p>\n The Beaches Olympic Pools opened a year behind schedule on June 1, 1963. As the naysayers predicted, the first\u00a0day was mired in\u00a0traffic problems. The jam\u00a0on Lake Shore Boulevard East reached the intersection with Queens Quay, in part due to detours related to construction of the Don Valley Parkway, while police stationed\u00a0outside the pool tried to direct cars\u00a0away from the\u00a0overtaxed parking lot.<\/p>\n Up on the\u00a0pool deck, 500 people\u00a0eager to take their first dip in the water were\u00a0held at bay for\u00a0almost two hours of ceremonies and\u00a0swimming and diving demonstrations.<\/p>\n When the show was finally over, “corpulent” Ward 5 alderman Joseph J. Piccininni, who was clad in a striped bathing costume, was the first to leap into the water from the diving platform.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During its first months of operation, the Beaches Olympic Pools and others operated by the City of Toronto proved exceptionally popular, especially with interloping swimmers across the municipal border in Scarborough.<\/p>\n In the 1960s, parks and recreation facilities were the financial responsibility of the various towns, townships, and cities that made up Metropolitan Toronto.<\/p>\n “Mr. Bell said he was sure that a number of suburban tans\u2014or sunburns\u2014were acquired in the eight swimming pools provided free by the city [of Toronto,]” reported the Globe and Mail<\/em>.<\/p>\n “Sure it’s unfair,” said Bell. “Taxpayers in the city go to these pools and find they’re filled up with people from Scarborough or somewhere. Toronto is taking a trimming on these things, but what can we do about it … check everyone’s name in the city directory?”<\/p>\n “Amalgamation is the only way of settling it,” he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In November, 1963 mayor Donald D. Summerville died of a heart attack and the pools were officially renamed that same month in his honour.\u00a0Summerville was a long-time Beach resident and a prominent booster of the pool project.<\/p>\n Though the complex was undoubtedly pretty,\u00a0the lack of a roof made it only suitable only for\u00a0summer use. In 1969, the city again commissioned Wilson + Newton to explore options for covering the pool.<\/p>\n Their report weighed the benefits and drawbacks of a massive Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome (too costly\u00a0to heat,) an air-supported structure (too dangerous,) and a futuristic triodetic structure (too expensive) against more conservative options, such as a simple soft shell or cable-supported roof.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Wilson + Newton recommended\u00a0a simple steel frame roof that could be attached\u00a0to the existing pool deck for about $972,000, but it was never built.<\/p>\n Perhaps that was for the best. One of the best features of the\u00a0Donald D. Summerville Olympic Pools is its unbroken views of Lake Ontario\u00a0and its sun drenched bathing areas.<\/p>\n Now 53 years old, the pool is beginning to show its age. The city began\u00a0a\u00a0$3.75 million renovation in 2013 that rectified structural issues and made minor cosmetic improvements to the public facilities, but the project\u00a0didn’t\u00a0address the trashy and unwelcoming exterior.<\/p>\n It’s a shame, because the popularity of the pool\u00a0in the 1960s was\u00a0clearly the result of the architecture. From the sunbathing and swimming deck, the pools\u00a0offered unbroken\u00a0views of Lake Ontario that were unavailable anywhere else in the city.<\/p>\n In some areas\u00a0the pool water appeared to blend with Lake Ontario\u00a0and stretch to the horizon like an infinity pool\u00a0in an exclusive\u00a0club\u00a0or expensive hotel. The Summerville pool told the public it\u00a0deserved great facilities, too.<\/p>\n In spite of its problems, when the sky is blue, and the pool is blue, and the lake is blue, the Donald D. Summerville pool still looks like\u00a0the C\u00f4te d’Azur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"toronto](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/07\/20160801-Summerville-Deck.jpg\")
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