Wide-Angle picture of University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin is one of my new favorite pools!  As a seasoned swimmer, I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of pools.  Between swimmers, a common conversation is what the pool builder did right or could have done better.  I found that this chatter was minimum at best.  I can almost always find something wrong with the setup.  This pool raised the bar in a few ways.  Some of the features off the top of my head:

• 8 long course lanes, don't try to squeeze 10 in a 25 yard wide pool silly
• ceiling has straight lines in the form of a drop ceiling with rectangle panels
• 40 massive ceiling mounted speakers, 28 full range, 12 subwoofers
• Acoustic deadening material in the walls, tastefully done
• 1" deck tiles, I image large tiles cost less and are more slip prone
• 9' deep competition pool, the deeper the better but this is about as much as you can ask for
• Adequate spectator seating at 3,000+
• Underwater lighting and oberservation windows along EVERY wall of the pool, the entire width/length
• Nice Colorado pads
• 3 massive full color scoreboards which display either times or other relevant content during meets
• Side balconies for news staff and reporting
• Bulkheads stored in the ceiling for space saving and to increase the width of bulkheads without increasing the length of the pool!
• Plenty of room behind blocks for race prep
• Hand tightened lanelines, no wrench required
• 10 lanes for warmup/warmdown in diving well
• Runoff/Overflow gutters
• Huge locker rooms
• Good showers with temp control
• Parking garage close to pool

Learn more at the website: http://www.tsc.utexas.edu/about.php

I'm tough to impress, and I'm impressed.