At Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC), a 50-meter Olympic-sized outdoor pool has been a focal point for students and the community alike. However, usage was limited to the summer months due to the region’s rainy climate. The college partnered with DynaDome, a company known for its retractable pool coverings to provide a solution that will soon transform the way MHCC utilizes its prized pool.
“We’ve been looking for options to create year-round usage of our pool for about five years,” said Charles George, the assistant vice president of facilities at MHCC. “After considering building a permanent structure, we realized that would take away the beautiful outdoor experience our users love, like swimming with views of Mount Hood. DynaDome’s retractable cover gives us the best of both worlds: full outdoor usage in the summer and coverage during rainy seasons.”
Here, George shares more about the project, the benefits of having a pool to use year-round and MHCC’s positive experience working with DynaDome.
When did you start working with DynaDome? Can you provide an overview of the project?
We’ve had our 50-meter, Olympic-sized outdoor pool since the 1970’s, and we get most usage out of it during the summer. Our swim teams and competition folks want to use the space more year-round, and it’s been really limited in doing that. We had an inflatable dome over the pool during the wintertime for about 12 years, but it was a pain to set up and maintain.
We started working with DynaDome about two years ago on this project. That’s when we started talking design with them. The project will be finished in 2025.
Why did you decide to purchase from DynaDome? What problem were you looking to solve or solution to incorporate?
There are very few 50-meter Olympic-sized competition pools in our area that are outdoor, and our goal is to put a cover on there so we can have year-round events. We came up the concept to have a pool cover that opened, and we put it out to bid. DynaDome back and said they could design it, and they put a bid on it. There weren’t any other companies that could do a retractable structure of that size. That’s what set DynaDome apart. I think a lot of companies make retractable covers for smaller or glass buildings for residential pools, but we couldn’t find anybody that could cover a 50-meter Olympic-sized pool other than DynaDome. So that was really exciting.
They were really open to modifying the design to fit our needs because we hired an architect to help us with the ground layout, utilities, airflow, electrical, etc. DynaDome reviewed the needs of our architectural engineering team and were in our meetings. They were able to make design changes to the structure. It’s not a one-size fits all system. They have an architectural and engineering team at DynaDome who can modify designs to fit the needs we have for our pools, which is pretty unique.
How does DynaDome benefit your audience?
We believe we can do more for the students and community. Having it covered in the wintertime, we gain at least three months — up to six — of additional class time and pool availability for the students and our community. Therefore, we can offer any sporting events, competitions and whatever else we might be able to do there during those times of year.
Have you been pleasantly surprised working with DynaDome in any way?
Absolutely. In the beginning, I was worried they’d only be able to make one type of dome, and we were going to have to make it work. I was really surprised with how flexible they are in engineering team support and modifying designs to fit the need of the pools.
What else can you tell other professionals about the benefits of working with DynaDome?
They communicate really well and are responsive, flexible and creative in their designs. They’re easy to work with. There are smaller DynaDome around the country, and I talked with those facilities managers too. They love them, but this is the first 50-meter Olympic pool to have a retractable structure. It’s really helpful for people to have that opportunity and use these types of structures in the future. I hope our project will be a type of showcase for the future.
