A new facility is taking shape at Black Butte Ranch's (BBR) Glaze Meadow swimming pool area.

Four pools are being completed in the $7.2 million renovation including a 25-yard indoor all-year pool, an outdoor kidney-shaped pool with waterfall, a new large spa and a children's pool.

There will be other amenities offered at the new Glaze Meadow complex for Ranch owners, guests and visitors. A food concession area, sports shop, exercise and yoga rooms, massage, therapy and fitness, steam room, summer bicycle rentals and winter ski and snowshoe rentals will greet people after the makeover. There will also be a gallery and exhibit area.

Adjoining the new facility will be a children's playground, including a tricycle area, small rocks to climb and the usual play equipment.

R&H Construction Co. of Portland is the general contractor.

Those who haven't seen the changes taking place at Glaze Meadow will not recognize the new inside and outside transformations. Among changes are the huge locker rooms and restrooms. Those remembering the old facility's tiny locker rooms will be amazed.

"A remarkable new facility," said Ranch homeowner Jerry Bogen.

In the "old days," the Glaze Meadow pool was tented in winter to provide access, the other pools being used only in summer. With the new construction at Glaze Meadow, the tent was refitted and used at the Lodge pool for winter swim activities.

The one-year building project at Glaze Meadow will be completed next month and have a soft May opening. The formal opening celebration will take place over Memorial Day weekend.

Visitors will find new landscaping and fencing around the large building.

Carl Sherwood is the architect for the project. Frank Buehler is in charge of construction, and Russ Fetrow, also a BBR homeowner, is task force leader for the ambitious project.

"I only hope there is sufficient technical crew to oversee day-to-day operations at the new Glaze Meadow facility," said Bogen. "There are large sand filters, heating units and other complex equipment to be maintained."

One of the technical details was allowing inside pool water to stay at level edge (at the top of the pool), lap over onto the deck and be recirculated by catch basins.

"The workers from Paragon (Designs) and Anderson (Construction) companies did an outstanding job to make sure of the level decking for this to work successfully," said Steve Corfield, a worker from Central Oregon Tile and Marble. Another worker, Kyle Price, agreed.

"Overall, the new facility is a beautiful job, a '10' for building projects," said Corfield. "I would be hard-pressed to find another like it."

The new pools will have solar heating to maintain comfortable water temperature for swimmers.

"This project was a very challenging and complex project," said project superintendent Brian Crosby. "Ninety of the workers were from local areas."

At any one time there were between two or three dozen workers on the project daily. They worked four ten-hour days during the building project.

Workers, construction engineers and BBR personnel celebrated the building project's success last week with an afternoon picnic on the lawn outside Glaze Meadow pool.