Late spring in Los Angeles is the season for jacaranda blooms and dreamy misty mornings.
Spring time also leads into summer, and in Southern California, that means time spent around the swimming pool.
The swimming pool is so intertwined with the notion of the LA lifestyle that it’s hard to imagine one without the other.
”Swimming pools, movie stars…”
Anyone flying into Los Angeles has had the experience of gazing down into the basin dotted with the sparkling turquoise gems of the countless swimming pools below. Actually, someone has counted these swimming pools. According to the Big Atlas of LA Pools, there are some 43,000 private pools in the central areas alone. Beverly Hills, to no one’s surprise, has nearly 2,500 pools, the highest per capita in the region.
Of course, public baths are as old as civilization itself. But it took Hollywood to bring the backyard swimming hole into the popular culture. Early movie stars were among the first to add swimming pools to their lavish estates. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford built one of the first known private swimming pools at their Beverly Hills estate in 1920. Socialite Alla Nazimova included a swimming pool as a centerpiece for her notorious hotel villa, The Garden of Allah.
Nevertheless, the backyard swimming pool remained little more than a fantasy for most until the 1950s and 60s when new technology made them affordable for the middle class. The swimming pool quickly became a lifestyle staple for the Atomic Age.
The swimming pool exudes glamour and luxury, especially considering we build them in the midst of the parched and arid landscape of Southern California. Beyond the sensual pleasure of being in and around water, the pool symbolizes a kind of mastery over a primal natural element. Water is the stuff of dreams… and nightmares.
There’s no denying the dualistic nature of the swimming pool. Above, there is the shimmering surface and below, the mysterious and dangerous depths.
Mike Nichols used this tension to brilliant effect in his 1967 movie The Graduate. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays recent college grad Benjamin Braddock. Ben returns home after college where he spends his days listlessly drifting in his parent’s pool. In the spirit of the times, Ben rejects the material ambitions of his parent’s generation all the while enjoying its comforts. As his life begins to fall apart, Nichols presents a brilliant image of Ben floating underwater in the pool which has now become his metaphorical tomb.
It’s no wonder that so many artists have mined the rich symbolism of the swimming pools. British painter and former Nichols Canyon resident David Hockney frequently features swimming pools in his work. In fact, Hockney painted the bottom of the Roosevelt Hotel swimming pool in 1988. Other artists, including James Turrell and Ed Ruscha, have also used the swimming pool as a canvas for their work.
As the malaise of the 1970s clouded over California and the rest of the nation, it was the swimming pool that brought a powerful new youth culture to life. A lingering drought led many pool owners to drain their pools leaving behind hundreds of empty cement bowls. In this somewhat bleak landscape, a new generation of teenagers found life and opportunity. Skateboarders took over the empty pools turning them into arenas of daring physical expression. And the skate punk movement was born.
Today, the pool is more popular than ever. New technology has made it possible to build pools in places though impossible just a few years ago. The Hollywood Hills is filled with cantilevered infinity pools hanging over the canyons. The illusion of a disappearing edge perfectly mimics the limitless horizon of the LA coast.
All tomorrow’s pool parties
If you’re not fortunate enough to have a pool where you live, take heart. There are a lot of great public pools where you can get splashed – everything from neighborhood and community pools, to upscale adult pool parties.
Here’s a list of some of our favorites.
Standard Hotel – The Pool Deck
The Standard, Hollywood
8300 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, 90069
phone number
Standard Hotel Hollywood
Sky Bar at Hotel Mondrian
Sky Bar
8440 Sunset Boulevard Avenue
West Hollywood, 90069
323–848–6025
Sky Bar
Hollywood Roosevelt – Tropicana
Hollywood Roosevelt
7000 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, 90028
phone number
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
Griffith Park Pool
3401 Riverside Drive
Los Feliz, 90027
323–644–6878
Griffith Park Pool
Hollywood Pool
1122 Cole Avenue
Hollywood, 90038
323–460–7030
Hollywood Pool
West Hollywood Pool
647 San Vicente Boulevard
West Hollywood, 90069
323–848–6538
West Hollywood Pool
