Construction images of a prototype for the swimming pool +Pool, designed to float in New York‘s East River, have been released ahead of its installation for further testing.
Pool1 is part of the overall development of the plus-shaped +Pool, a floating public pool to be installed off Pier 35 in Downtown Manhattan. The pool will convert East River water into swimmable, non-chlorinated water via a patented filtration system.
Currently under construction at Bollinger Shipyard in Mississippi, an initial metal structure or “specialised barge” will act as the structural body of the pool, designed to support the 2,000-square-foot (186 square metres) rectangular Pool1 version of +Pool – effectively one “arm” of the full-sized design.
According to managing organisation Friends of +Pool, it is similar to the hull of a ship, and will be fitted with a filtration system and on-deck amenities, such as showers.
The rectangular cutaway on top of the structure will eventually hold a swimming pool.
“We are currently designing the below-deck and above-deck components of our first facility for health agency review,” said managing director of Friends of + Pool Kara Meyer.
“Thanks to the incredible support of our city and state partners, we are advancing this innovation so that New Yorkers can have safe ways to reconnect to their natural environment.”
+Pool structure set to be towed to New York from Mississippi
This month, the vessel is set to be dry-towed from Mississippi to New York City over three weeks for holding in a city shipyard.
According to Friends of +Pool, it will be installed off of its Pier 35 site in May 2026, where it will undergo “final evaluation” from New York City’s Department of Health (DOH).
If approved, the organisation anticipates the smaller version of +Pool will be open for swimming as early as the end of summer 2026, although 2027 is more likely.
From there, it plans to build the full 9,000-square-foot (836 square metre) plus-shaped pool upon further permitting from the DOH, which would be a separate structure.
Simultaneously, the organisation tested its filtration system in the waters off Pier 35 last summer, which was engineered in collaboration with Arup.
The filtration system uses several strainers and UV disinfection to treat the river water.
+Pool began in 2010, conceived by architect Dong-Ping Wong, who brought the idea to co-founders and designers Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin of PlayLab, and designer Oana Stănescu.
Initially, the group “imagined a future where New Yorkers could engage with the water that surrounds them on a regular basis”, informed by the history and accessibility of New York City’s public swimming pools.
Beyond design, the project has included work to change New York State Department of Health laws and standards around “bathing facilities that don’t fit traditional swimming pool or beach criteria”, according to its website.
It was also pushed forward under the NY Swims and Let’s Swim NYC initiatives, supported by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Launched in 2024, the initiatives aim to increase access to rivers and lakes and improve public swimming pools.
“+Pool remains committed to bringing river swimming back to NYC and advancing job creation through its annual operations,” says Friends of +Pool Board chair George Fontas.
“A little over a year ago, there was no pathway to building this kind of innovation for NYC. Thanks to the visionary leadership of Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams, a massive interagency collaboration across city and state government has ushered in a new set of rules for engaging with the river in an effort to open up public waters across New York State.”
Previously, Wong claimed he was “frozen out” of the project after raising DEI concerns to the organisation’s board, while local studios created a temporary floating installation informed by the project in 2019.
The images are courtesy of Bollinger Shipyard
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