Laguna de Las Flores

Designed by Bertram Goodhue and built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, Laguna de las Flores in Balboa Park, San Diego, consists of a smaller northern pond called La Lagunita and a larger southern pond called La Laguna, divided by a balustrade walkway and filled with lilies and lotuses. The reflecting pond has served as an entrance corridor to the Botanical Building since its inception, with notable temporary exceptions during World War I, when the U.S. Naval Training Station in Balboa Park used the pond to teach rowing and swimming to new sailors, and during World War II, when the U.S. Naval Hospital in Balboa Park deepened the larger pond by two feet and used it as a physical therapy pool for wounded sailors for the duration of the war. It was also opened to children for swimming and to adults for bait and fly casting. Major renovations to the Lily Pond took place in 1949, 1964, 1994, and 1999, including replacement of the wooden balustrade with a concrete balustrade and installation of a modern filtration system.

San Diego, California · United States