'+ POOL, Tile by Tile' by Family and PlayLab

Like a giant strainer dropped into the river, + POOL makes it possible for everybody to swim in clean river water in NYC.

+ POOL started with a simple goal: instead of trying to clean the entire river, what if you started by just cleaning a small piece of it?  And what if you could change how New Yorkers see their rivers, just by giving them a chance to swim in it?

A Giant Filter for the River

+ POOL is designed to filter the very river that it floats in through the walls of the pool, making it possible for New Yorkers to swim in clean river water for the first time in 100 years.  The layered filtration system incrementally removes bacteria and contaminants to ensure nothing but clean, swimmable water that meets both city and state standards. No chemicals, no additives, just natural river water.

The pool will clean up to half a million gallons of river water every single day.  In doing so, + POOL will make a measurable contribution to the rivers of New York City.  The rivers are big, and this will be a great place to start cleaning them.

A Pool for Everybody

+ POOL is designed for all types of swimmers, bathers and hanger-outers, which is why it’s designed as four pools in one: a Kids’ pool, Sports pool, Lap pool and Lounge pool. Each can be used independently, combined to form an Olympic-length pool or opened completely into a 9,000 square foot pool for play. Its simple and iconic shape will mark the return to clean rivers in New York City.

Pool Dimensions: 164′ (l) x 164′ (w) x 5′ (d). Each arm is 32′ (or four lanes) wide.

Pool Area: 9,300 sf

Pool Volume: 285,000 gallons

Deck Dimensions: 205′ (l) x 205′ (w) x 8′ (d)

Deck Area: 14,700 sf

Water Turnover Period: Every 6 hrs (2 hrs at Kids’ pool)

Water Turnover Rate: 707 gpm (259 gpm at Kids’ pool)

Max Daily Turnover Volume: 694,000 gallons/day

 

 

Real-River Testing

A huge and essential milestone in getting + POOL closer to the water is being able to test all the filtration materials in real-river conditions. To do that, we’ll be building a mini, temporary and floating science-lab version of the + POOL that we’re calling Float Lab. The Lab will allow us to test a combination of different materials right in the East River and assess the water quality across 19 different parameters, ensuring clean and safe water for swimming across all standards.

 

 

Float Lab This Summer

Their Kickstarter goal of $250,000 has been reached, and they will build the 35′ x 35′ Float Lab off the Brooklyn shore this August, giving everybody a chance to see and learn about how + POOL will clean the rivers.

They’re working with a great team at ollolo in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard for the fabrication and assembly of the lab.

After testing is completed, they’ll get back to work designing and engineering the rest of the project, from the structure to the showers, in preparation for review with the city and state.  There’s still plenty of work to be done, but their big goal is to open the full, beautiful + POOL for everybody in the summer of 2016, just in time for the Olympics!

+ POOL was driven by the supporters, backers and collaborators that wanted to see the pool in the water as much as the creators did.  So they thought, what if they broke the pool into bite-size chunks and gave everybody a way to claim a piece of the pool for themselves?

 

This is a + POOL tile…

One of 70,000 tiles that will make up the deck, walls and floor of the future pool.

They wanted everybody to be able to see, hold and keep their very own tile which is why when you reserved an individual tile on Kickstarter, they’d engrave your name on it and send you one in the mail this very summer.  And on opening day of the future + POOL, there will be a replica of your tile waiting for you on the pool with your name permanently etched into the history of making the world’s first water-filtering floating pool.

 

Filtration Testing

More info on the project on their Kickstarter page

Info and images via Kickstarter

'+ POOL, Tile by Tile' by Family and PlayLab