March 12, 2008 - We have had really good news in the last few weeks. 
The bids came in last week (March 6th) and I am giving you a direct quote from the City of Richmond City Manager's weekly update:

Richmond Natatorium Project Update

"Bids for the renovation of the Richmond Natatorium (The Plunge) were received and opened this past Thursday. The engineer's estimate for the project is $4,200,000 and the City received two bids with the low bid at $3,991,000.  Engineering staff will be analyzing the bid packages, calling references and preparing the City Council agenda item during the next few weeks."

While 8 bid packages were picked up, only three bids were actually turned back into the City with one bid turned in too late to be valid.  .... The other good news is that our request to Valley Foundation for $500,000 was granted but with the following codicils.  It is to be a matching grant and must be matched with private funds  and it is to be used for Phase 2 of the project.    -    Ellie Strauss

Engineering Services held a pre-bid meeting the week of February 6, 2008 for the rebid of the renovations to the Richmond Natatorium.   The meeting was well attended with 9 general contractors present along with several subcontractors.
The architect’s cost estimate for this work is $4,500,000. 
The bids are due March 6th and construction is expected to start by the end of April, 2008.
The project is expected to take a year to complete.
From the City Mangager's Report as forwarded by Councilmember Tom Butt

Historic pool in Richmond finally gets makeover

By Katherine Ta
West County Times

Article Launched: 05/10/2008 04:03:50 PM PDT

The long-awaited rehabilitation of Richmond's 82-year-old indoor swimming pool — the largest and oldest such facility in the Bay Area — is about to begin, seven years after officials declared it unsafe and shut the doors.

Crews are expected to start reconstruction in early June and finish their work in a year, city engineer Rich Davidson said. The $5 million project, funded through a mix of city money, state grants and donations, includes: rebuilding the exterior walls; reconstructing the roof to bring back the original windowed belvedere; restoring the historic viewing decks; fixing the pool tank; making mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades; and painting the interior and exterior.

Those who have pushed to save the municipal natatorium welcomed the news as the light at the end of a decade-long tunnel.

"We're thrilled we got this far, and we know it will open eventually," said Ellie Strauss, director of the Save the Richmond Plunge Trust. "There's nothing as sad in a community as an empty building."

The work that begins next month is just the first phase. Showers and bathrooms need to be renovated, and funding for that hasn't been entirely secured, Davidson said. Save the Richmond Plunge Trust landed a $500,000 grant from the Valley Foundation, but must come up with $500,000 in donations to match it.

Today, the Plunge sits closed to the public on East Richmond Avenue at the gateway to Point Richmond. A banner pleading "Save the Plunge" dangles from the top.

In its heyday, the natatorium and its warm waters drew Bay Area residents and even big names in the national swimming world. Children learned to swim. Families splashed in the pool for play. Seniors exercised to stay mobile and limber.

Strauss visited the Plunge every morning for aqua aerobics for about 30 years.

"It was almost mystical," she said. "It would be cold in the morning, and you'd walk into that great, big building. The water was warm, and you could get in and feel good."

The warm water was what drew the crowds, but something quite different brought the Plunge to this site: oil.

In the early 1900s, the land belonged to resident John Nicholl, who thought there was oil underground, according to a city document. He drilled more than 1,000 feet in the hopes of finding it, but discovered no crude, only fresh water.

Nicholl donated the land to the city. Voters passed a bond measure to build a pool on the site, considered an ideal spot because the fresh water combined with salt water piped in from San Francisco Bay was believed to be therapeutic.

The Plunge opened in 1926, a stunning, two-story building with an indoor pool, fountain-like feature, second-floor observation balconies, meeting space and an open truss ceiling.

But time, earthquakes and humidity gradually took their toll on the building. The city had trouble keeping up with repairs. Crews patched here and there, at one point altering the roof and removing the original windowed belvedere that reduced air circulation. Officials deferred expensive improvements, including seismic retrofits.

By 2001, with the building unstable, cracks in the walls, and mechanical and plumbing systems failing, officials shut the doors. Swim classes moved to the Richmond Swim Center at Kennedy High School.

Debate ensued over whether the natatorium ought to be torn down. But supporters hoped to save it and planned garden tours and Plunge jams with free swimming, music and food, to raise money and awareness. A documentary about the Plunge on KQED caught the attention of an architect, who is now working on the project.

Supporters raised more than $210,000 to get rehabilitation efforts to this point, and now will focus on raising $500,000 for the second phase of renovation, Strauss said.

"It won't be easy, but we'll raise it," she said.

Reach Katherine Tam at 510-262-2787 or ktam@bayareanewsgroup.com.

To learn more about efforts to save The Richmond Plunge, go online to www.richmondplunge.org or e-mail info@richmondplunge.org.

WE DID IT !!!

Richmond friends of Recreation in partnership with the City of Richmond applied for and were awarded a California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) Fund grant in the amount of $2,081,800.00!

This award puts our project to renovate and reopen the Plunge on a very positive track.  We will be able to begin and finish Phase1 which will bring the building into compliance with safety and health codes and allow us to move into Phase 2.  Plans are to restore the historic roof monitor and to recreate the original tiles for the tank itself.  The Plunge will be a splendid place to recreate and remain healthy. Upon receiving permission from the State Historic Preservation Organization and building permits from the City of Richmond the bidding process will begin for Phase 1.
   

The Plunge—Volunteers Save Point Richmond Landmark
By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Richmond’s getting ready to take the Plunge

The venerable structure in the heart of Point Richmond has been closed for five years, victim of an earthquake, a fire and years of neglect.

But thanks to strong support from the community and a combination of state grants, the Richmond Municipal Natatorium may once again become the Bay Area’s premier swimming hole—hopefully “within a couple of years,” said Ellie Strauss, who has been working hard to make it happen.

The venerable structure was built in an era when America was obsessed with swimming and housed pools in majestic buildings, said Strauss, a long-time member and officer of Richmond Friends of Recreation and a leader of the restoration effort.

Another obsession located the plunge at its prominent location in Point Richmond.

Convinced by a confidence man that oil lay beneath the city, promoter John Nicholl literally sunk his fortune into the ground, drilling through the bedrock until he found not oil but water—an artesian well that poured out a thousand gallons a minute.

A disillusioned Nicholl finally gave the site to the city in 1924, which built the plunge at the site, opening it a year later as the Municipal Natatorium, when a throng of swim fans eagerly waited to try the waters.

Swimmers from around the Bay Area swarmed to the pool, said Strauss.

“For years and years it was the centerpiece of West [Contra Costa] County,” she said. “It was used during the summer by people from Marin and San Francisco.”

Today, the Plunge is one of the few remaining grand pools left in the country.

“There’s one in San Diego, which was renovated with funds from a developer,” she said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a developer up here willing to do that.”

The building has been a challenge. After years of neglect and little maintenance, the building was in sad shape even before the Loma Prieta Earthquake of Oct. 17, 1989.

Cracks from the quake are visible in the stucco-covered brick walls and, as an unreinforced masonry building, it is considered unsafe. Richmond voters rejected a bond measure to fund restoration in 1997, though the city allowed the Plunge to remain open on a “swim-at-your-own-risk basis through August, 2001.

By that time, the building’s antiquated plumbing, electrical, mechanical and other systems were failing, and the city couldn’t afford the repairs.

A small fire last October and periodic incursions by the homeless in search of shelter have inflicted further indignities on the venerable landmark.

So Strauss and a cadre of recreation activists and North Richmond residents decided to do something about it.

As president of Richmond Friends of Recreation, Strauss had ready allies at hand, who took on the task of raising the funds themselves, forming the Save the Plunge Trust so they could receive tax-deductible contributions for the project.

“There’s a hard-core group of about 40 or 50 people, which includes members of the Friends of Recreation and several people who swam at the Plunge in the old days, and the events we’ve been holding have been well-attended,” Strauss said.

The project received a major boost when filmmakers Nick and Sari Arrington produced a documentary about the site, The Plunge—Time Laps, which aired on KQED.

One viewer inspired by the film was Berkeley architect Todd Jersey, and after a call to the city and another exchange of phone calls and meetings, he has become the architect for the restoration.

“The city had looked at several plans, but because the costs were between $8 million and $11 million, no one could see a way to do it. Then Todd Jeremy came along and found a way to do it for a lot less, about $4 million,” Strauss said.

The trust has been busily holding benefits, concerts and dinners to raise the money, as well as filing applications for other funds. With about half the money in hand or committed—including grants under three different state programs—the project is almost ready to begin.

“We’re going to do it in stages,” she said. “The first thing is to get the building safe.”

A so-called Belvedere monitor—a second roof above the main roof with celestory windows to improve air circulation in the building—which was removed in the 1970s will be restored, and the interior walls will be opened up and the pool itself will be retiled.

Because the building is a landmarked structure in the Point Richmond Historic District—which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places—all renovations must be approved by the state Office of Historic Preservation, a process now almost complete, Strauss said.

The city’s Design Review Board has already approved the plans, she said.

“If all goes well, we could be open again in a couple of years,” she said. “It will be restored to its old, beautiful self.”

Strauss’s commitment to the Plunge has outlasted her residence in Point Richmond. Though she’s been living in Cloverdale the last two years, she remains very committed to the plunge and to RFOR.

More dinners and other fund-raisers will be in the offing, until the last dollar is raised.

For more information about the Plunge and the restoration campaign, the Trust’s web site at www.richmondplunge.org.

-------------------------------------------------------------

October 30, 2004 Supporters rally for the Plunge.
Photo by Ellen Gailing

Engineer to study Richmond pool
Some say city was too slow on repairs

San Francisco Chronicle -   Friday, August 24, 2001
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer


Richmond -- Activists who have fought to save the Richmond Plunge said yesterday that the city should have moved faster to save the crumbling pool but agreed that safety concerns require that it be closed.

Richmond officials, after allowing swimmers to use the popular indoor pool at their own risk since 1997, abruptly shut the 76-year-old facility on Wednesday.

"I don't see where the city had much of a choice," said Bob Strauss, a member of Save the Plunge board and an occasional swimmer. "The pool does need work.

"We have been pushing for years to get engineers in there, but the city is moving at municipal speed -- somewhere between glacial and geologic."

The City Council finally heeded the call yesterday during a closed-door meeting at which it was decided to hire a structural engineer to examine the pool, considered the East Bay's equivalent of San Francisco's Sutro Baths.

"There's concern that trains rumbling by the building could trigger the framing to collapse," said Vice Mayor Nat Bates.

The safety of the city-run pool, adjacent to railroad tracks in Point Richmond, has been widely debated since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Plunge supporters persuaded the city in 1997 to allow swimming after voters rejected a $24 million bond issue that would have financed seismic repairs.

At that point, city officials erected "Swim at your own risk" signs.

The engineering firm selected by the council yesterday also examined the Plunge in 1997. Inspectors found ornamental stone falling from the east wall and fissures topping 10 feet long. Inside, reinforcing rods poked from the wall like exposed ribs, plaster crumbled like talc, and the western wall -- made of hollow clay brick -- sagged.

That wall is where Wednesday's mysterious bulge appeared.

This week's closing also has renewed the debate in Point Richmond over whether the landmark, built in 1925, should be razed or retrofitted.

Save the Plunge is ready to fight for a retrofit but will await the engineer's report before proceeding.

"Everybody who uses it is concerned, but if it's unsafe, the city has to close it and respond quickly," said Richard King, a member of the Save the Plunge trust.

The group has raised $151,000 to help restore the Plunge, a project that will cost between $5 million and $8 million. Save the Plunge worked with a videographer to make a documentary about the pool and held jazz concerts to raise money.

Councilman Tom Butt agreed that the city should have stepped in sooner.

"I've been saying for 10 years that regardless of any cracks, that building is deteriorating and we need to restore it." <back to top>

E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.

The Richmond Plunge, which has been 'swim at your own risk' since 1997,
was closed abruptly Wednesday over fears of deterioration. Chronicle 

photo by Katy Raddatz