Seattle Parks and Recreation showed its updated plan for the Green Lake campus at public meetings on July 15 and 18. Under that plan, the pool at the end of this rebuild sits inside the 1955 Evans Pool building at 7201 East Green Lake Drive North and has a six-lane, 25-yard lap pool. The project's new building is now the community center, not the pool.
That reverses what the department showed Green Lake less than a year earlier. The $88.5 million project still delivers a new gym, a new playground and a fully rebuilt pool interior. The one thing it does not add is more pool water. A second pool is the part the budget does not reach, and the project's engagement hub lists a warm-water pool only "if funding allows."
Last November, the New Building Was the Pool
At public meetings on November 13 and 15, 2025, Seattle Parks presented what it called a new approach of building a new pool. The concept put a new aquatic facility with a lap pool, a second recreation pool and a community room on the site of the current playground, northeast of the existing building. The inside of Evans Pool would have become community center space.
In July 2026, the public meeting slides swapped the two roles.
| November 2025 concept | July 2026 concept | |
|---|---|---|
| New construction | Aquatic center with a lap pool and a recreation pool | Single-level community center with a regulation-size gym |
| Evans Pool building | Repurposed for community center use | Still the pool, with a new pool interior, deck, gutters and mechanical systems, plus new and expanded locker rooms |
| Second pool | Part of the plan | Warm-water pool "if funding allows" |
The community center in the new plan would keep the programs it has now: a lobby and lounge, teen and games rooms, a fitness room, a pottery room with a kiln room, childcare for school-age kids, and a multipurpose room with a kitchen that holds up to 180 people. All of it would sit on one floor, next to a new playground with separate areas for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12.
The Pool Has Been Here Before
This is at least the third shape the Green Lake project has taken since 2020, and in one earlier version the pool also stayed where it is. The Seattle Times laid out the history in December 2025:
- 2015: A study found the center and Evans Pool should be replaced.
- 2020: Seattle Parks released a concept for a 90,000-square-foot regional complex with two pools, a vaulted welcome hall and a lake-view second level. It would have cost as much as $120 million.
- 2022: The department dropped that plan and said it would spend up to $50 million renovating the existing buildings. "The gymnasium will stay where it is, and the pool will stay where it is," a Seattle Parks official said at the time.
- November 2025: The project was back to new construction, with a new pool building.
- July 2026: The pool returns to Evans, and the new building is the community center.
The 2026 version is not the 2022 renovation again. The community center is newly built rather than patched, and the budget has grown. The project slides show funding at $61.6 million in 2023 and $88.5 million in 2026. Even with that growth, the pool ended up back in the same building.
Why the Money Lands on the Old Building
Two things shape every option on the table. The 1955 Evans Pool building was designated a city landmark in 2021. The slides list the protected features as the building's exterior plus a strip of the site measured 20 feet out from its walls. The campus also sits on ground that used to be lake bed.
Councilmember Dan Strauss, who represents District 6, explained what those two facts cost in an interview with KNKX in April:
"The cost drivers for Green Lake Community Center are the unstable soil conditions and the landmarking of that building, and that's why I say we could build a pool at another location in our city and get twice as many lanes by building a bigger pool, right? Same dollar, double the amount of pool. And the parks department wants to honor the fact that community members have become accustomed to swimming at Green Lake."
In the same KNKX story, Strauss said the building's heating and cooling system is precast in concrete, which makes the water temperature swing quickly, and that HVAC investments made over the past decade "are already failing."
The July slides compare three pool designs against that budget.
- Option A keeps the current entry and basketball court, has low impact on the landmark, opens space and views toward the lake, and "meets budget." Its listed drawback is "no expanded program."
- Option B puts the pools side by side and costs less to operate. It needs a basement expansion, moves the basketball court to the lake side of the building, and could affect the landmark more. Its cost estimates exceed available funds.
- Option C keeps the court where it is but separates the pools, needs an expanded basement and costs more to run. Its estimates also exceed available funds.
Only the option that adds no pool fits the budget. That is why the second pool appears on the engagement hub with the words "if funding allows."
Six Lanes Was the Sticking Point
The lane count is the detail Green Lake swimmers pushed on hardest. KNKX profiled Allie Bacharach, a Green Lake resident and board member of SplashForward, a nonprofit that advocates for access to sustainable aquatic facilities. She started a petition titled "Expand and Enhance the Green Lake Pool Rebuild," which KNKX reported had close to 2,000 signatures by late April.
Evans has six lanes now. According to KNKX, three of them are usually set aside for lap swimmers, those lanes fill quickly at lunchtime, and Bacharach said she almost always shares a lane with a few other swimmers. KNKX also reported that no public pool in Seattle open year-round has more than six lanes. Bacharach's ideal is a 10-lane pool measuring 25 yards by 25 meters, and she told KNKX that even eight lanes would make a big difference.
In April, Jessica Murphy, director of planning and operations at Seattle Parks, told KNKX the project was "really very early in our design process and engagement." She said it had received "a 20% increase of funding less than three months ago" and that the department would come back that summer to show how it had used community feedback within its constraints.
The July meetings were that return visit. The project overview posted afterward lists a 25-yard lap pool with six lanes, the same count Evans has today, plus new locker rooms and a community and party room. What the rebuild changes for the pool is the systems around the water: a new pool interior, deck, gutters and mechanical equipment, and better sight lines across the deck.
What Happens at Evans Until Construction Starts
On October 20, the Seattle Parks project page said the department is "excited to resume the planning, design, and construction" for the community center, aquatic center and play area. The July slides lay out the sequence from here:
- Fall and winter 2026–27: public meetings, design development, cost estimating, site investigations, value engineering, and planning for construction logistics
- Spring and summer 2027: more public meetings, final design development, construction planning, and building permit submittal
- Late 2027: construction begins, with work running through 2028 and 2029
KNKX reported that the community center is expected to close for about a year and a half during construction. Until then, both buildings are open on their fall schedules. The Evans Pool page runs the current session through December 20, with closures still ahead on November 26 and 27 for Thanksgiving and December 10 for a staff in-service day. Aqua Run, an inflatable challenge course that floats on the water, came back to Evans on November 1. It is for ages 6 and up, and swimmers need to pass a swim test and pre-register.
The campus is also busy outside the pool this season. A Seattle Forest Week work party in Green Lake Park on Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., will plant about 400 plants, mostly food-bearing, in the food forest. On Saturday, December 12, the free Pathway of Lights runs from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Seattle Parks' listing describes more than 1,500 luminary bags and three music stages, and asks visitors to bring a canned food donation. The Green Lake Community Center describes the event as a longstanding community tradition supported by Parks, volunteers and local businesses.
The engagement hub has an open prompt asking what people hope to see when the project is finished, with answers capped at 140 characters. It is the most direct place to weigh in before the fall and winter design meetings.
If you own near the park and are thinking about how a construction period from late 2027 through 2029 on the Green Lake campus fits your own plans, Brad Hinckley can walk you through what the timeline means for your home. Request an instant home valuation or schedule a market strategy consultation.
