Everyone + Pool

 

Today's special guest blog courtesy of Jeffrey Franklin, Archie Lee Coates IV, and Dong Ping-Wong, the creative team behind + POOL.  Two Twelve is passionate about making public spaces accessible and enjoyable for everyone and is a proud supporter of + POOL.  

Summer is here and gone, but it wasn't too long ago that New York was collecting heat like it's going out of style. It's days like those that sparked an idea - on an island born from the rivers that define it, why must New Yorkers leave the city to enjoy clean, natural, swimmable water? 

In June of 2010 we sent a proposal out into the world for an oddly shaped pool. We had no idea how people would respond. Would the public want it? Would the city even allow it? We just knew it was a necessary and important step for New York's waterfront. Within three days, some 50,000 visitors crashed our servers and prompted calls from the New York Times to the Discovery Channel to CBS Eyewitness News.  

+ POOL is an initiative to build a floating, water-filtering pool for the rivers of New York City. Like a giant strainer dropped into the river, + POOL would be the first of its kind to filter river water for recreational swimming, not only in New York City, but around the world. Designed as four pools in one: a Kid's pool, Sports pool, Lap pool and Lounge pool, each can be used independently to cater to all types of swimmers, combined to form an Olympic-length lap pool, or opened completely into a 9,000 square foot pool for play. 

Now, after two and half years of development, testing, meetings, presenting, conferencing, hand-shaking, meeting some more, campaigning and coffee drinking we more excited than ever to make it possible for the city of New York to swim in a clean river. With the incredible support and expertise of engineers at Arup, researchers at Columbia, advocates at MWA, thinkers at IDEO, competitive and open-water swimmers, city and state agencies, waterfront organizations and especially the belief of over 1,200 supporters who pledged money through Kickstarter, we are now closer than ever to getting + POOL in the water.  

On October 1, we launched EVERYBODY + POOL,  a campaign to raise for the first $1 million for the project and bring + POOL closer to approvals and construction. Over the next six months, events, discussions, videos and more will invite everybody to be a part of making a new architectural, ecological, recreational and social icon for New York City. Donations to the campaign are tax-deductible thanks to the invaluable support and fiscal sponsorship of Storefront for Art and Architecture. 

Go to www.pluspool.org to learn more and check out an extensive project timeline that outlines all the steps, meetings, tests, presentations and developments that have happened so far, as well as what's to come.

Everything is better with a pool.

- Jeff, Archie & Dong