Lance Armstrong's Pool
Celebrities have the time, imagination and resources to create amazing outdoor playgrounds, and celebrity pools feature some of the most amazing details and designs in the world. From an early 1900s Roman revival mansion, to the Playboy mansion, the former Hollywood home of a 1950′s pin-up girl, a famous action film star’s Miami compound and the White House itself, this guide to the world’s top 7 most interesting celebrity pools will look at what makes each famous pool unique.
In some cases, the artistic design and care that went into building a celebrity pool will set it apart. And sometimes, simply knowing that a celebrity, or groups of celebrities, spent time swimming or lounging in a certain swimming pool will make it interesting and famous. The secret history of a historic swimming pool can certainly entertain the imagination, while we marvel at the sheer grandeur and indulgent excess of gold-plated pool tiles, underwater speakers and chandeliers hanging over the swimming pool.
Each of the top 7 most interesting celebrity pools tells a unique story and features remarkable elements:
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White House Swimming Pool 1992 after Renovation
The White House Pool:The President of the United States swims in an outdoor, in-ground swimming pool built by Gerald Ford in 1975. Located near the tennis courts, it features a cabana with expansive windows and a thermal heating system. In 1997, Bill Clinton’s administration installed a 7 person jetted hot tub. The hot tub, which features 25 jet settings, was a gift from the Watkins Manufacturing Corporation. The tile walls of the another White House swimming pool, the now-empty indoor pool located directly beneath the James S. Brady press room, has a secret history of autographs from the famous artists, musicians and politicians who have visited the White House.
White House Seimming Pool with President Ford, 1975
In fact, in 2008 the popular Jonas Brothers band autographed the pool wall during a visit. Other famous pool wall signatures include Sugar Ray and Bono. Originally, the Roosevelt administration built a swimming pool outdoors so President Roosevelt could treat his polio with regular swimming. When the Nixon administration took over several years later, President Nixon ordered the pool drained and built over. President Nixon built the press room over President Roosevelt’s pool, but the original structure remains in the press room basement.
- The Playboy Mansion Pool: It was built by architect Arthur R. Kelly in 1927 and acquired by Playboy from Louis D. Statham (1908–1983), an engineer, inventor and chess aficionado, in 1971 for $US1.1 million. The Playboy mansion is most famous for a legendary swimming pool and grotto.
Playboy Mansion Pool 2010
The swimming pool features large decorative rocks, aquatic plants, a waterfall and decorative stone patios. The grotto, a cave-like structure built from smooth rocks, sits in the middle of the swimming pool and features built-in benches, napping areas and several whirlpools. Gardens and stone walkways surround the entire pool area. For decades, celebrities have flocked to the Playboy mansion for parties, events and fundraisers.
Playboy Mansion's infamous Grotto
Many modern movie stars and musicians, as well as idols from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, have spent time in the Playboy pool and grotto. Additionally, many Playboy bunnies, featured in the popular men’s magazine over the years, have frequented the famous swimming pool.
- The Neptune Pool:One of the most photographed pools in the world, is the brainchild of publishing mogul William Henry Hearst. Built in the 1920s, the Neptune Pool is one of two swimming pools featured at the historic Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Modeled after an ancient Roman castle, The Hearst Castle adheres to exact specifications and the Neptune Pool underwent renovations twice by Hearst between 1924 and 1936.
The final version of the pool as it stands at the Castle today is 104 feet long, 58 feet wide and 95 feet wide at alcove. It is 3.5 feet deep at the west end, 10 feet at drains and holds 345,000 gallons of water.
Additionally, the Neptune Pool also renovated by architect Julia Morgan in 2008. The outdoor pool features intricate mosaic patterns and exquisite marble and serpentine tiles. Reproductions of ancient Roman columns and several fine art statues surround the water. The Heart Castle also features an equally exquisite indoor pool, The Roman Pool, tiled in smalti glass squares of orange, blue and gold. Around the water, eight marble statues pay homage to Greek gods and goddesses, while underwater mosaic designs depict ancient Roman marine monster mythologies.
Other unique aspects of the Neptune Pool include the oil burning heating system, the light-veined Vermont marble decorating the pools and colonnades, and four 17-century Italian bas-reliefs on the sides of the colonnades
The Roman Pool is carefully designed by Hearst to mirror authentic Roman baths from centuries ago, and the blue tiled ceilings imitate the look of ancient mausoleums.
- Tycoon Lev Leviev’s Private Pool: The most expensive private swimming pool in the world belongs to famous diamond tycoon, Lev Leviev. Leviev’s $70 million mansion in London showcases a stunning indoor swimming pool with gold-plated mosaic tiling. The grand pool converts into a ballroom via an electronic retractable cover, and features a full spa and sauna amid grand Roman columns and a beautiful cathedral-style
ceiling.
- Sylvester Stallone’s Private Pool: At Sylvester Stallone’s 14 acre Miami compound, the swimming pool sits next to a life-size bronze likeness of Rocky Balboa, a movie character made famous by the actor in the
1980s. White stone vases, engraved with intricate designs, adorn two corners of the rectangular outdoor pool, and white marble-like tiles surround the water. A spa, tiled in blue mosaic, sits near the bronze Rocky statue at one end of the pool, while a lone tree towers grandly over the opposite end.
- Jayne Mansfield’s Heart-Shaped Pool: The late actress Jayne Mansfield insisted that her future husband, Mickey Hargitay, promise to build her a heart-shaped house with a heart-shaped pool, before she accepted his marriage proposal. Hargitay agreed and fifty years later, people still talk about that Beverly Hills house with its one-of-a-kind heart-shaped pool. The outdoor pool featured underwater speakers, and mosaic tile letters in the shallow end of the pool spell out “I love you Jaynie” . Two small heart-shaped islands graced middle of the pool, while the pool steps descended from the top section of the heart design. This famous pool is no longer heart-shaped, due to demolition and remodeling by new owners several years ago.
- The “True Blood” Pool: “True Blood” fictional vampire queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq: La Villa Contenta, the grand Malibu house used as the home of Evan Rachael Wood’s gripping character in the HBO “True Blood” series features a natatorium, or indoor pool, surrounded by cathedral-like walls and an ornate ceiling. Gleaming tile floors, regal furniture and ornate iron chandeliers frame the Malibu home’s long, rectangular swimming pool. The largest chandelier hangs directly above the center of the pool, and the skylight enhanced ceiling arches toward the heavens. Intricately engraved tiles outline the edges of the ceiling. The “True Blood” house and swimming pool have been featured in many other television shows and films, including ‘Funny People’, and ‘I Love You, Man’. The stunning property is for sale, and is listed as one of the ten most expensive homes in the world.
