New York City is one step closer to getting its long-awaited floating East River pool

For nearly a decade and a half, New Yorkers have awaited the arrival of a self-filtering, cross-shaped pool floating in the city’s East River after the proposal was partially crowdfunded and eventually approved by the city.

Now the futuristic design has an official home. Last week, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced that the summertime facility, called + POOL, will be built at Pier 35, near Manhattan’s Lower East Side — though swimmers may need to wait until summer 2026 for opening day.

The pool’s filtration system, which is expected to clean more than a million gallons of river water daily without the use of chemicals or additives, per a project press release, will undergo two rounds of testing. The first will begin this month on a floating barge in the waters close to Pier 35; next year, a portion of the open-air pool will be built to carry out the final tests.

This past January, Governor Hochul announced a major breakthrough for the project by way of $16 million in joint city and state funding, part of a statewide $150 million initiative called NY SWIMS. Mayor Adams said in a press statement that + POOL will help expand "equitable access to swimming for all New Yorkers, especially our children."

The city of more than 8.3 million people only maintains around 50 public pools deep enough to swim in, 2krn according to New York City Council data from 2022, creating long lines during summers amid longer and more intense heat waves.