New York is a city of islands and water. Its waterways are the city’s largest contiguous open space and the connective tissue between boroughs. The water is, in effect, the sixth borough. As part of a new “blue network” of navigable and inhabitable spaces on the water, the mobile Veloaquadrome will open up neighborhoods to the waterways and make New York more livable and attractive. The Veloaquadrome is a place for public recreation, promotes health, and provides a unique vantage point from which to take in the urban environment. Like all successful spaces of athletic recreation, it encourages safe, interactive, and healthy communities.
The Veloaquadrome is 495 feet long and 264 feet wide, half the size of a Manhattan block, and floats on two container vessels and a floating disk. Its primary elements are an Olympic-sized velodrome—an arena for track cycling—and a floating pool with a multifunctional island; it also incorporates an event and performance space, heliport, and jet-pack station. The Veloaquadrome is nomadic, moving along the blue network to connect with already-existing neighborhoods and to help produce new ones.

Originally published in “By the City/ For the City:  An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York” Edited by Anne Guiney and Brendan Crain.