Work could begin later this year or early next year on the building of a new and large public swimming pool on the northeast side of downtown Denver.
Located at 3181 Champa Street, the Mestizo-Curtis Park Pool exists within the boundaries of the oldest park in the city. The pool itself was originally built in 1936 and upgraded in the mid-1980s.
Always a popular recreation outlet used by hundreds of neighborhood children and adults, the pool was closed by city officials earlier this year in preparation for a long-anticipated rebuilding.
That work will be funded out of a bond package approved by city voters in 2021 called Rise Denver. That $260 million package allotted $6 million for the pool project.
Now the City of Denver has issued a Request for Proposals to demolish the existing pool and build two new lap and swimming pools. The project will also see the reconstruction of a bathhouse on the site.
“The Mestizo-Curtis pool is past the end of its useful life and requires a replacement to ensure it can continue to serve the community for years to come,” Stephanie Figueroa, a spokesperson for the City’s Parks and Recreation Department, remarked earlier this summer to the publication Denverite.
Design of the new pool will be undertaken by the Denver-based HDR Architecture.
The larger Mestizo-Curtis park is one of the oldest public parks in the West, coming into existence in 1868 when the first nine acres of the site was donated by two residents. In time the park grew to three times its original size and in 1975 was added to the National Register of Historic Places list.
A submission deadline for the park project RFP is set for August 27.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay