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 non-profit would protect the project from private interests and ensure it remained a project truly for everyone.”
Wong went on to explain that the project has steadily become more reliant on the “philanthropic ecosystem” of New York, drifting towards a financially-driven interest at risk of propagating gentrification. Elaborating on this point, Wong writes that the Chinatown site for +POOL was secured in 2019 “in the service of luxury housing,” with then-mayor de Blasio seeking a “win” after being “caught exploiting loopholes to waive through a series of new tower developments that the community deeply opposed.”
“I have expressed my concerns to the leadership about the long-standing lack of diversity of the + POOL board,” Wong continues. “I have also suggested multiple times that the organization needed clear guidelines with which to address the discrimination that public swimming pools have historically exacerbated. These issues were repeatedly dismissed, I was frozen out of the project, and to date, I am unaware of any true community involvement with the residents of Chinatown.”
Closing his statement, Wong expressed concerns over how the project will impact the neighborhood, a majority of whom are people of color and lower income. He also expresses concern over “what concessions to access might be made in the service of commercial interests and about what agreements with predatory developers might be taking place without my knowledge.”
“I love + POOL,” Wong concludes. “There is no project that represents my work better or that I am prouder of. But I love Chinatown more and I will do whatever I can to protect the future of the neighborhood. I certainly hope that includes + POOL, but for it to live up to its promise, and the promise of Governor Hochul, it must take this milestone as an opportunity to not only work with members of the community but to evolve the leadership into one that has the ability to faithfully serve the neighborhood.”
Following the latest funding, the project is expected to be tested in the summer of 2024 and, if found to have fulfilled all health and safety requirements, is scheduled to open to the public in 2025.
Correction, 25th January 2024: The original text of this article stated that the project is to be constructed on the East River, as has previously been reported by outlets including Curbed, CNN, The New York Times, and TimeOut. After publication, Friends of +POOL informed Archinect that the scheme's final location had not been confirmed and is to be announced by the government.
UPDATE: Friends of +POOL issued a statement to Archinect in response to some of Dong-Ping Wong's public comments. You can read that here.
6 Comments
Aaarrrrrrr, matey!
Aaarrrr... oh, crap, it's just bitcoin.
Arrrr, matey, you got me scratchin' my head. What be the purpose of putting a swimming pool in the shape of a cross out in th' river? Next thing you know they'll put out a park sittin' on a field of plants. Hold on, hold on—arrrrrrrr.
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It was always just a pool, a mere novelty. If you want to truly impact and improve a city the efforts of architects and designers could be directed into so many other fruitful avenues.
A blast from the past - the original FOOD team worked hard to get it off the ground more than a decade ago. It's cool to see architects getting down and dirty in the political process to get things done, even if it's just a novelty project. Still, there's only so much architects and advocates can do. Even billionaires can't always get their way in NYC - see Heatherwick's patron Diller and his decade-long fight to get Little Island built.
This project has been going on for so long that the designers are now against it. LOL
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