Between 15th Street and Plano Parkway, the lush course of Pittman Creek meanders through the city of Plano like a landscape trapped in time. The only sounds are the electric trill of cicadas, water purling across limestone, and scattered birdcalls. It’s easy to forget the surrounding city exists, until a footbridge appears overhead and frolicking voices filter through the canopy. It’s a summer day at the Texas Pool.
Since the pool was built in 1961, Plano has grown from a rural town of 3,700 to a booming suburb to an economically and ethnically diverse edge city with a population crowding 300,000. All this time, its surface has been in a constant state of reinvention—stacked, demolished, and rebuilt like a 72-square-mile Legoland.
Through it all, the pool abides…