Water park with pool and beach are envisioned for Schuylkill riverfront near 30th Street Station

The University City District is planning a bi-level water park on the western bank of the Schuylkill, between Chestnut and Market Streets, featuring a large public pool, beach, and a restaurant.

The $60 million project unveiled at the district’s State of University City event Thursday would be built to withstand “a 500-year storm event,” according to promotional materials, and would offer large swathes of shaded areas to provide respite during the summer months.

“A lot of folks don’t have the resources to get to the Jersey Shore, so this will be a place where kids from West Philly can take a trolley to a beach,” said Nate Hommel, director of planning and design with the University City District (UCD). “This is not a private club that is exclusive and requires steep membership.”

Fundraising efforts are underway, and the price tag is large enough that the resources won’t all come from one source. Hommel expects to approach the city for capital funds, as well as the University of Pennsylvania and the area’s other anchor institutions.

“We’re going to have to use some of our history of partnering with folks: public funding, private sources,” Hommel said. “We’re confident we can get the job done, and so we’re hoping to get a lot of excitement in the donor world to help us out with this.”

University City District would operate the new park, just as it does the Porch at 30th Street Station and several other public spaces it has created in recent years.

The upper deck of the proposed structure would be lined with trees and offers access from the street, including a reserved space for food trucks. There will be a slide that can be used to navigate from the second-floor deck to the amenity-rich first floor, as well as stairs and a ramp.

The lower deck would be the centerpiece of the new public space, with the almost Olympic-size pool, public restrooms and changing areas, a kayak grotto, a cafe, and a shaded area that could be programmed to host everything from Parks on Tap to a child’s birthday party. Sand will be trucked in to build the beach that will also be featured on the lower deck.

University City District’s idea of building a new public space over the Schuylkill began taking shape during the pandemic. The organization paid for a feasibility study and hired consultants from nationally renowned firms.

They also ran the concept past the many larger institutions that would have to sign off, from the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to Pennsylvania’s Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection.

“We didn’t ask anybody to say yes. We just said, ‘Hey, are we nuts?’ And nobody laughed us out of the room,’” Hommel said.

Originally, UCD dreamed of having the new park floating on the river. But then Hurricane Ida swept through the region, in what Hommel describes as a 400-year storm. They have since redesigned the bi-level park to withstand even more severe weather events.

The “500-year storm” standard is meant to protect against extreme events such as back-to-back hurricanes. The lower level will also be designed to be sealed off in the event of catastrophic flooding, unlike the upper floor.

“That top deck on the West Philadelphia waterfront will always be open, so you could still get those breezes in the summer when it’s hot,” Hommel said. “Even when it’s smoking hot, it’s always cooler at the river. It’s all part of resiliency. As the Earth gets warmer, people can always come to the riverfront.”

After fundraising is complete, UCD estimated it will take three years to carry out a community engagement campaign, make corresponding adjustments to the design, secure permitting, and build the park.

Because the bi-level park is planned over the river, it faces a tangle of jurisdictions. (There is no zoning, for example, because there is no land there right now.) A variety of approvals will be needed from federal, state, and city agencies.

Some details are scarce. UCD doesn’t yet know how much sand will be required to create the beach, the number of public restrooms, or hours of operation, although they intend it to be open for far longer than city-run pools.

In recent years University City District has embarked upon several public space enhancement projects. The nonprofit spruced up the area around SEPTA’s 40th Street trolley portal, opening a restaurant and creating a greener and more welcoming space. It also transformed the sun-blasted plaza to the south of 30th Street Station into a public space called the Porch, which features seating, shade, food trucks, and events.

A bi-level park over the river is far more ambitious than those, but with the right partnerships and backing, UCD believes it is achievable.

“This will be a place that’ll show up when they’re doing flyovers for Eagles games,” Hommel said. “So it’s going to have to work for those folks. But it really has to work for the folks that keep coming back, the folks that live nearby, the kids that want to hop on the trolley and go to the pool.”