On a wet Wednesday morning, the W. O. Decker, a 1930s wooden tugboat, set out from Pier 16 into New York’s East River. Its voyage was an opportunity to unveil the future home of + POOL at Manhattan’s Pier 35, just north of the Manhattan Bridge, and a test of its water filtration technology engineered by Arup. + POOL moves forward without an identified designer, as founder Dong-Ping Wong of Food Architects was “frozen out” of the project due to his concerns about the organization’s lack of diversity and community involvement.
At the press conference on August 7 at Pier 35, community groups like Henry Street Settlement and local leaders joined with + POOL staff and board members to mark the occasion. Grace Lee, assemblymember for New York State Assembly District 65, spoke, as did Aixa Torres, residents association president for NYCHA’s Alfred E. Smith Houses. Torres has been advocating for this effort for a decade and hopes it provides a “healthy adventure for the community.”
In an Instagram Story posted in response to a recent article about + POOL by CNN, Wong said the organization’s “erasure of my role seems related to the fact that they have hired other architects to take the architectural scope away from me and my office without informing me. There was no question when I started + POOL that I would be the designer and architect of + POOL from beginning to end.” In a response to CNN, + POOL’s managing director Kara Meyer said the project has “evolved beyond the design stage” and “encompass[es] engineering, programming and advocacy work.”
Testing, Testing
A barge moored to the East River shoreline is the site of a 90-day test of + POOL’s water filtration system. The effort is funded by New York State and New York City; both entities have also committed to funding a 2,000-square-foot pool prototype that will be used for final testing next summer. Earlier this year, + POOL received $12 million from Governor Kathy Hochul and $4 million from New York mayor Eric Adams. Governor Kathy Hochul called this latest progress a “step forward in demonstrating the feasibility of a filtered floating pool in New York City waters.”
+ POOL’s goal is to use filtered, non-chlorinated river water in its floating pool. Arup’s Dan Rosenberger explained the filtration system, which “brings raw river water to an acceptable microbiological standard for swimming.”
Rosenberger said there are six steps: Intake via a submersible pump fitted with a 0.5-inch intake strainer basket to protect against fish passage and larger debris; pre-filtration with a 200 micron automatic washing strainer; membrane filtration to treat the water for turbidity, bacteria, particulate organics, and some viruses; UV disinfection; a test pool, built of stainless steel; and a cleaning system.
Once moved through the system, the water will be returned to the East River. Water quality is monitored at checkpoints along the process, and “data will be shared with the public and submitted to the NYC Health Department and other city agencies,” according to press materials.
Next Steps
The 90-day test stands to validate the “suitability of the patented system and inform the full-scale system design to achieve the water quality conditions required.” The timeline for future achievements, as explained by Meyer, depends on results from this current prototyping. “This is innovation in the making,” she said. These are “all the things that you need to do to make sure that you bring a new thing to life in the safest possible way.”
Next summer’s mockup of the pool will be constructed in Staten Island, according to + POOL. The plan is for it to be reused, either within the final pool or as a traveling piece. There might be a possibility to float it around to different communities across the state, as it will have all required services and be fully contained, Meyer continued.
The goal of + POOL is to get people comfortable in the water; to that end it has offered swimming lessons and lifeguard training courses. “We want to see people swimming where they live,” said Dan Shapley, senior director of advocacy, policy, and planning at Riverkeeper. “We want to see people swimming in clean water and in these amazing landscapes, whether it’s the skyline of Manhattan here, or the Palisades, or islands in the Hudson River.”
Where’s the Architect?
Some say architecture is sculpture plus plumbing, which makes + POOL an outstanding piece of architecture. But lately the effort has advanced without a publicly identified architect or designer: After Dong-Ping Wong’s departure, it is unclear who is designing either the upcoming mockup or the actual pool. Meyer said a designer wasn’t needed for now, only Arup’s engineering. Arup has been involved since 2011 and produced the first feasibility study, which basically said, in + POOL’s words, “Yeah, it’s possible, but you’ve got a lot of work to do, and a lot of money to raise.”
Wong created the idea of + POOL. In his telling, as the project progressed and sought funding, it entered New York’s overlapping ecosystems of philanthropy, real estate development, and city politics, which made him worry about its proximity to commercial real estate interests. He was also concerned about community engagement, especially near Chinatown. After voicing his issues, he said he was “frozen out” of the project.
Aboard the W. O. Decker when visiting the future home of + POOL, small talk turned to how the pool might generate revenue via special events, sponsorships, and naming opportunities to allow it to remain free to New Yorkers. The tour landed during the Summer Olympics, when swimmers were competing in the Seine (perhaps with some resulting sickness), and days before NYC Parks announced it had plans to demolish a historic recreation center and swimming pool in the West Village. How will New York City take care of + POOL if it can’t maintain its existing pools?
+ POOL, like much else in New York, is bogged down in liaising with city and state departments, as no one has permitted and operated a pool like this before. Does it need an architect? Many projects succeed without—or despite—the involvement of an architect.
Still: It is disappointing to witness a grassroots effort initiated by a designer approaching the finish line with strong design supporters—the board of + POOL includes founders from WXY, Modellus Novus, and Handel Architects—but no visible design leadership and an ongoing public feud with its founder. (“Looks great – just let wxy finish the job :),” an architect messaged me recently.) Meyer said the steel is being ordered to make next summer’s prototype. Who decides what shape the barge will be or how its pieces might best express the overall idea? Who will create the renderings that show the pool in its future home or document its details for construction?
+ POOL challenges the status quo. The liberatory promise of its shape, seen in Wong’s original imagery, has powered the idea since the beginning, buoyed by a strong form, evocative renderings, and much hustle. (It even has three patents: One for its filtration and two for its shape.) Seen at an angle, it looks like the multiplication symbol “×,” today’s overworked symbol of collaboration. Rather than ending up like a floating sequel to Little Island, + POOL has the capacity to provide recreational and health benefits for nearby residents. Hopefully it will do so with clear design leadership, not its awkward absence.
