Plus Pool, often stylized as + POOL, is an initiative to bring a floating

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

to the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

, on the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and/or

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

banks, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; a permanent location has yet to have been determined. The pool would be filled with water filtered from the river it floats in. The two companies behind it, Family New York and PlayLab, have been using the

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

website

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

to raise money for the project.

Concept

The planned cross-shaped, Olympic-sized pool would be used to clean the waters of the East River while providing a public space for water-based recreation. With its current design, the pool would flush out up to half a million gallons of river water daily through a layered filtration system. Over a quarter of a million gallons of filtered river water would be used to fill the pool itself. The planned long-term goal is to raise a total of $15 million to fund the entire pool by 2016.

History

In July 2011, the team raised over $41,000 on Kickstarter to test filtration materials using water from the East River. With the help of researchers at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, the tests yielded feasibility, and in July 2013 over a quarter million dollars was raised to build a 35 square foot miniature version of the floating pool. The "test lab" is to be a working

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

to analyze its effectiveness in river conditions. Since its conception, several independent companies have participated in the Plus Pool project, including engineering firm Arup, design firm

IDEO IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...

, environmental consultants from One Nature, and art institution

Storefront for Art and Architecture Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent, non-profit art and architecture organization located in SoHo, Manhattan in New York City. The organization is committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and desi ...

. The project has also been met with interest from government officials, notably New York State Senator

Daniel Squadron Daniel L. Squadron (born November 9, 1979) is an American politician and former member of the New York State Senate for the 26th district. A Democrat, Squadron was elected a New York State Senator in 2008, and was a candidate in the 2013 ra ...

and New York City Council Member

Brad Lander Bradford S. Lander (born July 8, 1969) is an American politician, urban planner, and community organizer who currently serves as the New York City Comptroller. A member of the Democratic Party, Lander is a progressive politician, and has been de ...

. In November 2013,

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

magazine ranked Plus Pool as one of the 25 best inventions of the year 2013. The pool was projected to open in mid-2016. Not much visible progress was made through 2016, but in April 2017, it was announced that a partnership with

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Febr ...

was formed. In 2019, the founders of Plus Pool introduced a

light sculpture Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 ter ...

in the East River. Funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, Heineken and the

Howard Hughes Corporation The Howard Hughes Corporation is a real estate development and management company based in The Woodlands, Texas. It was formed in 2010 as a spin-off from General Growth Properties (GGP). Most of its holdings are focused on several master-planned ...

, the sculpture changes colors based on water conditions. The system and the algorithm behind it was developed by scientists at

and developers and designers at the tech firm

Reaktor Reaktor is a graphical modular software music studio developed by Native Instruments (NI). It allows musicians and sound specialists to design and build their own instruments, Sampler (musical instrument), samplers, effects and sound design tool ...

. The city approved a location for the pool north of the

Manhattan Bridge The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is long, with the suspension cables be ...

on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

in 2021. The team proceeded to work on regulatory thresholds for the river and pool bathers.

References

External links

*
Swim in the River

Family New York

PlayLab
{{DEFAULTSORT:POOL Kickstarter-funded public works Proposed buildings and structures in the United States Swimming venues in New York City Parks in Manhattan Parks in Brooklyn East River