Sheerr Pool will be undergoing renovations for the 2024-25 academic year.
Credit: Chase SuttonWhile Penn men’s and women’s swimming and diving have seen much success in their home pool this past season, the teams will be relocated to alternative practice sites next season due to renovations to Sheerr Pool set to occur during the entirety of the 2024-25 academic year.
First announced by Penn Campus Recreation last summer, the Sheerr Pool renovations are set to begin in July and conclude June 2025, closing the pool for 2024-25 swim season.
Notably, the start date for renovations allows junior breaststroker Matt Fallon to practice at Sheerr Pool in preparation for the Olympic Trials in mid-June. He told the DP that he plans to train at Penn leading up to the trials. For the past two summers, he has trained with the Athens Bulldog Swim Club at the University of Georgia. For the winter collegiate swimming and diving season, the varsity teams will be relocated and their practice times split between Drexel and the West Philadelphia YMCA, the latter of which is a 30-minute walk from the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center.
Penn faces a somewhat unique problem with regard to the renovations, as the University houses all aquatics in one pool. Many other universities have two pools — one for varsity team use and the other for recreational activity. This way, one pool serves as a backup pool when long-term renovations take place. For instance, when Princeton's recreational pool closed for 19 months of renovations, the DeNunzio Pool — the varsity pool — expanded hours to accommodate club aquatics and Princeton students wishing to swim.
The Sheerr Pool renovations are currently being finalized ahead of the start of construction. Some aspects of the pool and its surrounding area that will be replaced include the bulkhead, gutter system, pool entry stairs, pool deck tiling, diving boards, starting blocks, and lane lines. The pool's ceiling and poor lighting will also be renovated, which is especially helpful to the backstrokers of the Penn swimming and diving community.
Sheerr pool renderings were created by KCBA Architects in preparation for renovations starting in July.
In regards to the timeline of the renovations, senior project manager James Palka told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the project will move quickly, beginning with demolition of the ceiling.
“When the pool closes down in July, demolition will start. The ceiling work will happen first. They have to build a scaffold system, which stays up until all of the ceiling work is done, ” Palka said. “There's not a lot of work out under or in the pool at that time because of the scaffolding. That will be the first couple of months, and once the ceiling is finished, they begin the other pool work.”
The renovations team doesn’t anticipate any issues that could prolong the project past June. “This team has done a great job making sure everything is lined up and scheduled so we can stick with that timeline as much as we can and to get the pool back online for our swim and dive team and our recreational users,” said Director of Campus Recreation Shelbi Long.
On the financing front, the University Board of Trustees approved over $14 million for the renovations in their March meeting, which is all of the funding for the project.
Although students are not involved with the project, Long said that a collaboration event with the Office of Student Affairs and Student Life is happening to celebrate the end of an era for Sheerr Pool and the plans for club sport relocations.
“We're working with Student Affairs and Student Life to do an end of year dive-in movie — essentially presenting a movie in the pool — to celebrate the end of the school year and Sheerr Pool,” Long said. “[Regarding club aquatics] we're still working with the Philadelphia area to identify where our sport club teams are going to go. However, we're in a decent place with that. We hope that they don't feel that impact as much and are excited about the new renovation as well.”
The dive-in movie event will be held at Sheerr Pool on May 1 from 7-9 p.m. — the pool is closing for renovations at the beginning of July.
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