Archinect - News

Friends of +POOL responds to inventor Dong-Ping Wong’s ‘bittersweet’ thoughts on the project

2024-01-25T14:22:00-05:00

'Friends of +POOL' have issued Archinect with a response to our recent reporting of concerns raised by Dong-Ping Wong, the project’s inventor and architect.

Reacting to news that the long-planned project had received $16 million in city and state funding, Wong described the step as “bittersweet” in a post shared on Instagram before expressing various concerns about the scheme.

“+ POOL's record on swim education and swim accessibility for communities of color speaks for itself,” Friends of +POOL Managing Director Kara Meyer said in a statement provided to Archinect. “Friends of + POOL has made DEI a major priority in its policies and programs, which is why it was a centerpiece of both the Governor and the Mayor’s announcements at the Jan 5 press conference.”

Responding to Dong-Ping Wong's criticism of “the long-standing lack of diversity of the + POOL board,” Gabriel Einsohn, PR Advisor to Friends of +POOL, commented that “four of nine board members are women and people of color.” Wh...

New York +POOL creator Dong-Ping Wong says new funding is ‘bittersweet,’ voicing concerns over gentrification and accessibility

2024-01-15T11:36:00-05:00

The long-planned +POOL in New York City has moved a step closer to realization, with Governor Kathy Hochul’s office announcing the allocation of $16 million for the project. Originally conceived in 2010, the scheme is designed as a self-filtering, plus sign-shaped pool in New York's rivers.

Reacting to news of the funding, project inventor and designer Dong-Ping Wong commended the city and state’s commitment to the project, along with the “tireless work of the organization and collaborators after years of pushing.” However, the architect also described the news as “bittersweet,” and expressed concerns that the project may have departed from the ethos that conceived it.

“When I started + POOL the goal wasn't to just build a pool,” Wong explained in a statement on Instagram. “The goal was to see if it was possible to make big civic changes to the city from the ground up for places that often get overlooked. When we decided to start a nonprofit in 2015, it was based on the ideal that a...

Your next role could be with Kardashian and Abloh collaborators Food Architects

2023-12-27T12:27:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Senior Architect at Zuru Group, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Project Manager at Food Architects DPC.

The role, based in Chinatown, New York, calls for an individual with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, along with over five years of experience in all phases of the design process, from concept and schematic design through design development, construction documents, and construction administration. The candidate must also have experience managing a team of designers, and excellent skills in organization, client communications, project scheduling, and consultant coordination.

Applications for the role close on December 31st, 2023.

West Kardashian Calabasas House. Image credit: Food Architects

Why the role interests us

The role at Food Architects offers us the opportunity to profile a firm that has produced architectural works for an eclectic selection of cl...

The long-awaited Plus Pool officially has a home in the East River

2021-05-10T13:44:00-04:00

Originally conceived in 2010 by design consultants Archie Lee Coates and Jeff Franklin along with architect Dong-Ping Wong, the self-filtering, plus sign-shaped swimming pool will allow New Yorkers to swim legally and safely in the polluted East River for the first time in more than 70 years.

After over 10 years of Kickstarter campaigns, benefit parties, filtration tests, meetings with stakeholders, advisors, and entities, from MTV to Mayor Bill de Blasio, presentations, design awards, board member inclusions, garnering public support, community outreach, and plan adjustments, the Plus Pool plan was progressing steadily until the COVID-19 pandemic halted everything.

However, it looks like the innovative pool is moving forward again. “We have an official confirmation to succeed with the next steps for the project,” says Kara Meyer, Plus Pool’s managing director, in a statement to Curbed. “We have a home. Mayoral candidates are talking about it.”

Going forward, the next major hurdl...

The pop culture-bending firm, Family New York, has decided to part ways

2018-02-08T13:36:00-05:00

Since establishing the practice in 2010, Family New York has accrued an impressive array of projects to their name, as well as fans of their work. Over the course of only eight years, founders Oana Stanescu and Dong-Ping Wong have had the opportunity to collaborate with everyone from the New Museum to Virgil Abloh and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. During this time, the duo has engaged in fanciful projects like their proposal for a water-filtering, floating pool off the shores of New York City and their movable, 50-foot volcano for West's dazzling, Yeezus tour.

Despite this solid run, the two have decided to go their separate ways and disband the practice. According to their statement, Stanescu, who is a former top-notch Archinect School Blogger, is going on to pursue a multifaceted practice under her own name. She will also continue on with her teaching positions at Harvard GSD and Cooper Union. Wong has also decided to start his own firm, FOOD, with projects already in the works i...

A Secret Language: Oana Stanescu and Dong-Ping Wong, partners at Family, on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #16

2016-03-28T14:04:00-04:00

This week on One-to-One, we check in with the partners behind Family, Oana Stanescu (former top-notch Archinect School Blogger) and Dong-Ping Wong, to hear how the pop culture-bending firm grew from when Oana and Dong met at REX, to now designing for Kanye West and pitching their own projects in New York, including the innovative + Pool project. Also, why Oana's dog is all over their website.

Listen to One-to-One #16 with Oana Stanescu and Dong-Ping Wong of Family:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
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Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Oana's archived School Blog for Universitatea „Politehnica” din Timişoara

What Oana is reading:

Life Is Elsewhere, by Milan Kundera
Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco

What Oana is listening to: Nirvana, Guns & Roses

What Dong is watching...