Franz-Josef Loscar stands at the edge of the pool and looks over the sports pool, in which the water surface is not yet showing any movement; behind it, however, it is already bubbling in the small relaxation pool. “A bath will last 50 years,” says the manager of the Ismaninger municipal works. “And the swimming pool technology 20 to 25 years.” The Ismaninger indoor swimming pool in the town center is now at the beginning of these two life cycles, although it is already almost ten years old. After seemingly endless renovation work, which most recently led to a two-year closure, the swimming pool, which opened for the first time in June 2013, will resume operations on Monday, February 27th. “And it stands there as if it were a completely new bathroom,” says Loscar.
Franz-Josef Loscar, manager of the Ismaninger municipal utilities, is relieved that all the quarrels surrounding the renovation are finally coming to an end.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
Swimming and bathing have a long tradition in Ismaning. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Isar was a popular but also dangerous Eldorado for swimmers due to its changing currents. At times there was a bathing house in the castle park above the Seebach and the ice pond is also a popular natural swimming pool to this day. The first indoor pool, including a sauna and restaurant, was opened in 1972 on the site of the former castle economy – at that time it cost four million marks. 36 years later, the municipal council then decided to build a new swimming pool at the same location.
But what happened next left even some experts stunned. “A professor, already over 80, said he had never experienced anything like this,” says Loscar shortly before the reopening. And the man should know, he was on site as an appraiser to inspect damage that no one would have expected when the highly modern, architecturally appealing indoor pool opened its doors a good ten years ago.
The indoor pool is one of the architectural highlights in the center of Ismaning.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
Just a few months after the opening, the first tiles are falling from the wall of the large pool. They are the harbingers of a farce that will last for years; because it’s not enough to bring the bathroom back into shape by replacing a few of the turquoise-blue tiles. The problems – or to put it another way: the botch in construction – lie deeper. The screed in the large swimming pool is partly porous and needs to be replaced, and the concrete tub above is also damaged. So the pool has to be completely rebuilt, so to speak. All these measures are accompanied by several court proceedings by the municipality with property developers, which end with a settlement in early 2021.
Shortly after opening in 2013, the first tiles in the large swimming pool came loose. Two years ago it was clear that everything had to go.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
It also proves to be of little help that a project worth millions like a new indoor swimming pool requires a Europe-wide tender. As a result, after the settlement, the municipality of Ismaning was not able to commission new construction companies with the renovation work at its discretion, but is still tied to those companies that are responsible for the faulty execution.
“Sometime you despair inside”
When it became clear in April 2021 that the screed and the concrete layer had to be renewed, the problems were far from over. Rather, a process begins that Loscar describes as “ping-pong”: “No one wanted to take responsibility.” On some days, more than ten people are out and about in the closed indoor pool – employees, those responsible from the construction department, experts. “Reviewer after reviewer,” says Loscar. “That delayed the whole thing massively.” The screed will finally be installed at the end of 2021, but as a result there will be problems again in combination with other components such as the epoxy resin, so you have to start all over again. “It was always said that this or that would be finished in two weeks. Then it became eight weeks, three months,” says Loscar. “At some point you despair inside.”
It’s also been a tough two years for the employees of the indoor swimming pool, because the pandemic and the energy crisis came first. “It was all stressful,” reports Loscar, while a few colleagues walk by in the background, making the final preparations for the reopening. But despite all the pressures – including short-time work during the lockdowns – they could have kept all their colleagues, the head of the municipal utilities is happy to say. Now the “demotivating time” is over, everyone is looking forward to the reopening. “And it starts from zero to one hundred,” he says. “We will all do our best. That’s why I ask for leniency for the bathroom staff if something doesn’t work.”
And we will continue to work on the Ismaninger indoor pool in the future. Such a swimming pool is not finished at some point and can then be used forever. “Every year there is an inspection, then we know what we have to renovate or replace,” says Losacr. “And it’s quite simple: there is no swimming pool in which not even a tile comes off.”
The relaxation pool is finally bubbling again.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
In addition, operations will not be resumed immediately in their entirety. The sauna will remain closed for the time being, the sanitary facilities there still have to be repaired. It will not open again until autumn at the earliest. However, the temperature in the pools will not be lowered, as in other pools, but will be the usual 28 degrees. This is also possible because part of the energy is generated in the swimming pool itself with a combined heat and power plant, the rest is fed from the community’s own geothermal energy. So the bathing fun can start in the new indoor pool, which is actually ten years old.