The Cortona by Thursday Pools is not just a fiberglass pool. It is an extraordinary backyard living space built around the water. Thursday Pools designed the Cortona as a configurable luxury pool where you can dine in, golf, and tan in one cohesive design, with options that include a sunken living room, a spa with spillover, a swim-up bar, a tanning platform, and even a golf and putting green. At 16′ x 40′ with a depth reaching 6 feet, the Cortona is the flagship for the homeowner who wants a backyard that does far more than hold water. This is a destination, built in a single fiberglass shell.
Cortona Thursday Pool
Dine In, Golf, and Tan All in One Extraordinary Backyard
What Is the Cortona Pool?
The Cortona is a large rectangle fiberglass pool with outside dimensions of 16′ x 40′ and a depth reaching 6 feet, giving it genuine swim depth rather than the uniform standing depth of a sport pool.
What sets the Cortona apart is that it is built to be configured. Beyond the pool itself, Thursday Pools offers a series of options that turn the Cortona into a full outdoor living environment:
- Sunken Living Room: A recessed seating area where you can sit surrounded by sparkling pool water without getting wet, creating a conversation and lounging space in the middle of the pool environment.
- Spa with Spillover: A spa integrated with the pool that lets you move between warm, relaxing jets and refreshing, cool water, with the spa spilling over into the main pool.
- Swim-Up Bar: An in-water bar area for serving and gathering without leaving the pool.
- Tanning Platform: A shallow shelf for lounging in the sun with the water just over the surface.
- Golf and Putting Green: An adjacent putting green that extends the Cortona from a pool into a complete backyard entertainment space.
Which of these you include is part of the design conversation. The Cortona is the Thursday Pools model built for homeowners who want to compose their own backyard resort.
What the Cortona Pool Is Not
The Cortona is not an entry-level or compact pool. It is a large, feature-rich design intended as the centerpiece of an ambitious backyard, and it needs both the space and the budget to match its scope. If your priority is a straightforward pool in a smaller footprint, Thursday Pools’ compact and mid-size models, such as the Nest, the Drift, or the Aspen, are better suited to that.
The Cortona is also not a fixed, one-configuration design. Its defining quality is that its living room, spa with spillover, swim-up bar, tanning platform, and golf green are options you select, not standard inclusions. That flexibility is the point, and it means planning a Cortona is as much about designing an outdoor living space as it is about choosing a pool. The right approach is to decide early which features matter most to how you want to use your backyard.
Why Thursday Pools?
Thursday Pools is the only fiberglass pool manufacturer in the United States that holds ISO 9001 certification, the internationally recognized, independently audited standard for quality management systems. That designation governs how Thursday Pools designs, produces, and tests every pool that leaves their Fortville, Indiana, facility, and no other fiberglass pool manufacturer in the country holds it.
For a design as ambitious as the Cortona, three patented Thursday Pools innovations are available:
- Backfill Eliminator®: The Cortona’s tanning platform and sunken living room create large, shallow and recessed areas that are structurally more demanding to backfill correctly than a standard pool wall. The Backfill Eliminator® is a Thursday Pools innovation designed to provide structural support for these areas, ensuring long-term stability where conventional backfill techniques can fail over time.
- Geo-Anchor Pool Wall® (U.S. Patent No. 9593455): A structural reinforcement system for the pool wall, relevant for any inground fiberglass pool in Ohio where freeze-thaw cycles create seasonal ground pressure against the shell.
- Lucky 7 Skimmer®: The first skimmer in the fiberglass pool industry designed specifically for fiberglass pools. Its 7-degree angle and custom mounting plate improve skimming function, optimize water level management, and produce a cleaner finished look at the pool wall.
The non-skid, algae-resistant gel coat finish on the Cortona is standard across all Thursday Pools designs, providing sure footing across the tanning platform, steps, and living room and a surface built to withstand years of use without cracking or peeling.
Why Fiberglass, and Why the Cortona?
Fiberglass pools install faster, cost less to maintain over time, and are simpler to manage than concrete or vinyl liner alternatives. The Cortona’s gel coat surface will not require resurfacing the way a gunite pool eventually does, and there is no liner to replace or repair. Building the Cortona’s living room, spa, tanning platform, and swim-up bar in concrete would require extensive custom formwork and a long construction timeline, while Thursday Pools engineers these features into a precision-molded fiberglass design.
The case for the Cortona specifically is that it consolidates what would otherwise be several separate backyard projects into one cohesive, professionally engineered design. A pool, a spa, a lounge area, a bar, and a putting green would normally be planned and built piece by piece. The Cortona brings them together around a single 16′ x 40′ pool, so the whole space reads as one intentional environment rather than a collection of add-ons. Thursday Pools estimates approximately $1,800 per linear foot as a ballpark figure for fiberglass pools, and given the Cortona’s scope and options, the right first step is a detailed planning conversation about which features you want and how they fit your yard.
Ready to Build Your Backyard Destination?
The Cortona is the pool that turns a backyard into a place people never want to leave. The Cortona by Thursday Pools brings the pool, the spa, the lounge, the bar, and the green together in one extraordinary design, and Ohio Paradise Pools is ready to help you plan it. We have been serving Northeast Ohio families for over 32 years, and we bring full-service expertise, precision backfill capability for the Cortona’s tanning platform and sunken living room, and a genuine commitment to communication throughout every project. Every installation closes with our two-visit pool school so you start your ownership experience knowing every system inside and out.
Call us today at (440) 610-5484 or schedule a free consultation to start planning your Cortona in Edison Park and the surrounding Ohio communities.
Available Sizes
Cortona Pool FAQs
What makes the Cortona different from a standard fiberglass pool?
The Cortona is designed as a configurable backyard living space rather than a single fixed pool. Where most fiberglass pools offer one defined layout, the Cortona lets you build in a set of luxury features around a large 16′ x 40′ pool, including a sunken living room, a spa with spillover, a swim-up bar, a tanning platform, and a golf and putting green. The result is a design that can function as a pool, a spa retreat, an entertaining space, and a recreation area all at once. It is Thursday Pools’ answer for the homeowner who wants their backyard to be a destination, and the specific combination of features is chosen during the design process to match how you plan to use the space.
What is the sunken living room?
The sunken living room is a recessed seating area associated with the Cortona that lets you sit surrounded by sparkling pool water without getting wet. It creates a lounge and conversation space integrated into the pool environment, so people can gather and relax right at the water’s edge. It is one of the optional configurations that give the Cortona its character as an outdoor living space rather than just a pool. Because a recessed area like this has specific structural and backfill requirements, it is planned carefully as part of the overall design.
How does the spa with spillover work?
The Cortona’s optional spa with spillover integrates a spa into the pool design so you can move between warm, relaxing jets and the refreshing, cool water of the main pool. The spillover feature means water flows from the spa into the pool, which creates both a visual water feature and a seamless connection between the two spaces. For homeowners who want hydrotherapy and pool swimming in one cohesive design rather than as separate structures, the spa with spillover is a natural part of the Cortona configuration.
Can the Cortona really include a golf or putting green?
Yes. Thursday Pools lists a golf and putting green among the Cortona’s available options, which is part of what makes it an all-in-one backyard living space rather than only a pool. The putting green extends the usable recreation area beyond the water, so the Cortona environment supports lounging, entertaining, swimming, and a round of putting in the same backyard. As with the Cortona’s other features, the green is planned as part of the overall design so it integrates cleanly with the pool, the decking, and the surrounding space.
What size is the Cortona, and how deep is it?
Thursday Pools lists the Cortona at outside dimensions of 16′ x 40′ with a depth reaching 6 feet. The 6-foot depth gives the Cortona genuine swim depth, which sets it apart from Thursday Pools’ flat-bottom sport pools that hold a uniform standing depth throughout. Thursday Pools does not publish inside dimensions or a gallonage figure for the Cortona, in part because the final configuration depends on which features you include. Ohio Paradise Pools will develop the full specifications for your specific Cortona design as part of the planning process, and will map the footprint and features to your actual yard during a site visit.
How long does it take to install a Cortona, and what does the process look like?
Because the Cortona is a fiberglass design, its core shell installs significantly faster than a comparable concrete build, though its scope and optional features make the overall project more involved than a standard pool. A straightforward one-piece fiberglass pool is typically installed in approximately 2 to 3 weeks, and the Cortona’s additional features, decking, and site work extend the timeline according to the configuration you choose. Ohio Paradise Pools manages the entire process from initial design through installation, provides regular updates, and offers FaceTime walk-throughs on days you are not on-site. Every installation closes with our two dedicated pool school visits before we consider the job finished.
What warranty does the Cortona pool carry?
Thursday Pools backs its fiberglass pools with a lifetime structural warranty on the shell and a 15-year surface warranty on the gel coat finish. The structural warranty covers the shell against defects in materials and workmanship over the life of the pool, and the surface warranty covers the gel coat against delamination, blistering, and structural coating failure for 15 years. When you work with Ohio Paradise Pools, those manufacturer warranties are supported by a local team that has been in business for over 32 years, holds a BBB A+ rating, and has been recognized as Cleveland’s swimming pool contractor of the year in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Because the Cortona is a premium, feature-rich design, confirm the specific warranty terms for your chosen configuration with us during planning.