All visitors are welcome to the James E. Martin Aquatics Center, except stray ceiling tiles.
Built in 1969 as the original competition pool, the instructional pool has needed an update, and a fallen ceiling tile prompted the University to make the first serious renovations since the pool's construction.
"It just kind of happened overnight," said Mitch McDowell, senior in economics and aquatic center employee. "We came in the morning and found a tile on the deck in that pool, and, immediately, we closed that pool down."
A net was put in place by facility managers to prevent more debris from water-damaged or fragile ceiling tiles from falling onto the deck or pool while it's still in use.
The net will hang high above the pool, just below the drop ceiling, for at least the remainder of the spring semester, construction manager Gregory Forthofer said.
"Our goal is to eventually take all of the drop ceiling down and just eliminate the problem altogether," Forthofer said. "We plan on having the netting in place until we can get a contractor under contract to do some improvements to the instructional pool area. There's more improvements than just removing the ceiling."
According to Fortofer, those improvements include moving and replacing the light fixtures to more accessible places around the deck, retiling the area around the pool and repainting the basin.
The ceiling tiles will be removed and the drop ceiling taken out, exposing the concrete beams that support the roof over the instructional pool and eliminating the threat of falling debris, Forthofer said.
Any new construction is welcomed by the aquatic center staff, but it can't come soon enough.
"Auburn likes to repurpose instead of rebuild," said Seamus White, junior in history and lifeguard at the pool. "Two weeks ago, all the pipes froze, and then they burst."
Though the pipes were eventually fixed when an internal boiler was added, hot water shortages have often forced the staff to shutter the locker rooms, putting additional pressure on the school to make changes.
"The last time happened in August," White said. "When you have people work on the pipes it happens more consistently. We didn't have the locker rooms for a month."
The constant influx of swimmers throughout the day only complicates the process further.
"Peak is definitely during the evening," McDowell said. "There's Auburn Aquatics, which is for little kids through high school swim teams. That's at least 40 or 50 without the younger kids. If you include the younger kids, you're pushing a hundred."
Forthofer said despite all the traffic, there have been no complaints yet about the net.
"When the final changes are made," Forthofer said, "It'll go virtually unnoticed, except by the backstrokers."
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