The Crystal Pool & Fitness Centre closed permanently in September in order to tear down the building and rebuild a new, modern facility. While this is a sad day for long-time patrons, and necessitates a five-year temporary service shift, the upgrading of the facility was necessary for safety, cost, and efficiency.
Crystal Pool was built nearly 55 years ago, on November 27, 1971, to replace the old pool at Crystal Gardens on lower Douglas Street. While it has become a beloved local icon, the hidden reality behind the facility is one of aging technology and high environmental footprint—it generated more than 40 percent of the city’s greenhouse-gas emissions from buildings. Due to its age, the facility was built to rely heavily on fossil fuels (primarily natural gas) to warm millions of litres of water and heat the building, which costs more than $2 million annually to maintain. Deteriorating mechanical systems meant that over its lifetime, the facility became more and more inefficient, requiring more energy to maintain the same space. The glass dome skylights and archaic insulation system allowed immense amounts of heat to escape into the atmosphere, further reducing efficiency, and the leaky roof caused even more problems.
In addition to this, the facility had meagre accessibility options, since that was not a consideration at the time the building was manufactured, and total structural reengineering (such as installing a small elevator) is not always feasible if the infrastructure, and overall cost, do not support it.
Anyone used to a modern gym found a less-than-stellar configuration in the old building: cardio machines scattered haphazardly around the pool, rusting in the humidity, and two separate, incomplete weight rooms on opposite sides of the facility. This is the result of increased need without the capacity to support it, and it was pretty lame.
The new facility, with a tentative budget of $168.9 million, will feature a 50-metre pool with a removable divider (like Commonwealth pool) alongside a smaller 25-metre pool, leisure pools, play areas, hot tub, sauna, and steam room. The new facility will also feature an expanded fitness studio, a full-sized gymnasium, and multi-purpose community rooms. Accessibility—such as pool ramps, lifts, and universal washrooms—will be a central focus, with the facility targeting the Rick Hansen Foundation gold certification for barrier-free accessibility,
There will be a necessary change in services in the interim. The facility originally planned to transition directly into the old YMCA building on Broughton Street, but unexpected water damage in that building forced the transition to be delayed until early 2027. This interim facility will be renamed the Victoria Recreation Centre; it’s primarily a gym facility, with access to a small pool. Not ideal for fans of the expansive Crystal Pool, but better than nothing.
There are other municipal facilities in town to access in the few months between now and the reopening of the Victoria Recreation Centre. Saanich Commonwealth Place, Esquimalt Recreation Centre, Cedar Hill Recreation Centre, Oak Bay Recreation Centre, and Gordon Head Recreation Centre are all open for business.
Users of the City of Victoria’s Leisure Involvement for Everyone (LIFE) program have the option to choose either two years of unlimited access to Crystal Pool (now Victoria Recreation Centre), including 52 admissions to 14 regional partner centres across Greater Victoria, and reduced cost for registered programs, or a reduced cost (50-percent off) single-year unlimited pass to the same 14 facilities. You must be a resident of Victoria and meet income eligibility thresholds to access the program.
Those interested in the LIFE program or wondering about their options during this transition can visit victoria.ca/parks-recreation/recreation/accessibility-inclusion/life-program for more details.