When the University of Chicago looked at their student recreation facility’s indoor aquatic center, they faced a race against the clock. The facility, which features a massive recreation pool with integrated lap lanes, a lazy river, custom built-in bench areas, and a separate large spa, was suffering from severe indoor surface degradation. Because the pool serves as a vital hub for student life and athletic training, the university could not afford a lengthy shutdown during the academic year. Their goal was a complete resurfacing of the entire footprint, but it had to be executed within a strict, non-negotiable two-week window over the winter holiday break before students returned for the next term.
Executing an aquatic restoration of this scale, moving from contract signature to final pool filling in just 14 days, required a massive, highly coordinated mobilization. It was an intensive, rapid sprint that pushed our teams to work straight through a brutal Chicago winter, transforming a deteriorating campus amenity into a pristine, modernized aquatic environment on an accelerated timeline.
Modernizing a 6,700-square-foot recreation pool and a 740-square-foot spa in under two weeks required a highly efficient, specialized approach rather than a standard cosmetic patch. We utilized 40,000 PSI hydro-blasting to completely strip away the damaged old finish without compromising the pool shell and existing racing lane and waterline tile.
The renovation included:
Together, these precise upgrades gave the indoor recreational pool a beautiful, brand-new look and long-term durability, all while perfectly preserving the university’s existing tile investments.
Completing a massive indoor project in the heart of metropolitan Chicago over a holiday break meant battling dense urban logistics and some of the most unforgiving winter weather conditions imaginable.
The first obstacle was managing the raw elements. With outdoor temperatures plummeting into the single digits, the crew could not mix plaster using standard open-air setups without the material freezing and ruining its consistency. To solve this, the team built makeshift heated tents outside the facility, mixed the plaster under strict environmental controls, and utilized heavy-duty pumps to seamlessly feed the material from the freezing outdoors directly into the indoor facility.
The second challenge was the sheer density of the workforce required to beat the clock. A specialized 19-man force was rapidly mobilized, dividing into an elite hydro-demolition squad followed immediately by tightly scheduled plaster application teams. Operating inside the tight confines of a university campus, a forklift team continuously shuttled heavy debris out to containment areas, keeping the workspace clear so the plasterers could execute the intricate hand-finishing required around the complex curves of the lazy river, multiple steps, and built-in benches before the material cured.
The successful 10-day execution gave the University of Chicago far more than an updated recreation center. It proved that even the most complex, large-scale commercial renovations can be safely compressed into hyper-accelerated timelines when the right technical expertise is deployed.
By seamlessly combining heavy indoor containment, sub-zero material engineering, and ultra-high-pressure hydro-blasting, the project demonstrates how an aging university asset can be entirely overhauled over a single holiday break, ensuring a flawless reopening as the students returned to school.
“This project had a tough timeline and we needed to move quickly; it was only two weeks from contract signed to completion of job due to the specific timeframe they needed the work done in.”
Like what you see? Contact us for your upcoming project!
