The people behind + POOL, New York’s buzzed-about floating river pool, have announced the start of work on a beta version of the watering hole–and another ambitious round of fundraising.
Designers and founders Dong-Ping Wong, Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeff Franklin said the “fabrication” of Float Lab, the test pool, will begin early next year and continue through next summer at the Hudson River’s Pier 40, providing the team with data regarding seasonal filtration, among other matters. The Brooklyn-based naval architects at Persak & Wurmfeld will assist with the Float Lab portion of this project.
The new Tile by Tile fundraising campaign aims to raise $500,000 that will go toward + POOL’s design and engineering development, economic impact research and operational model. Last summer, the project raised $273,000 in an early round of Kickstarter crowdfunding. “Every 15 minutes for an entire year,” the designers’ said in a statement, “+ POOL will be real-time testing every necessary water quality parameter needed to make the + POOL filtration as efficient as possible.
As with the Kickstarter campaign, Tile by Tile donors will be rewarded with a pool tile bearing their names. The 9,000-square-foot, estimated $15 million + POOL is expected to open in the summer of 2016.
Update: This post has been corrected to reflect that the Tile by Tile campaign is not affiliated with Kickstarter.
