+Pool is one of the zaniest projects proposed for the New York waterfront: this cross-shaped pool, floating in the East River, would employ a filtration system to clean the surrounding river water to use as pool water. Curbed has obsessed over the proposal for five years now, and since then it's gone through successful fundraising campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and lab tests that have proven that the filtration system could produce swimmable water.
This June, the +Pool team brought on marine engineers and water quality experts to test 10 potential locations for the pool. Locations include a number of piers along Hudson River Park (including the Circle Line launch point); Two Bridges on the Lower East Side; Governors Island; Bush Terminal Park in Sunset Park; Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo/Brooklyn Heights; off the future waterfront park of the Domino Sugar Factory development in South Williamsburg; Transmitter Park in Greenpoint; Hallets Point in Astoria; Hunters Point in Long Island City; and St. George in Staten Island.
Five months later, the team has narrowed down its options and made significant progress studying the engineering of a floating pool in each location. We spoke with Kara Meyer, one of the spokeswomen for +Pool, as well as Anand Agarwal, an engineer at McLaren Engineering Group who is working with the +Pool team, about how far this once pie-in-the-sky proposal has actually come along.