Detail about the McCarren Park Pool Presentation to CB1

At the CB1 meeting last night, the architects, along with Julius Spiegel (Brooklyn Parks Commissioner) came to give a presentation on the pool. All of the fundng ($50 million) is still in place, and they said it will be open in two years.

It still looks the same as it did in the renderings from last year, basically--with the peninsula reaching into the pool and the water in a squared horse shoe shape. It will hold about 2,500 people. The main buildings will hold a gym and a rec center/community center. They will build cabanas off the main buildings onto the pool deck to use as changing rooms. These are essentially concrete awnings that make an enclosure with benches and lockers inside. They looked cool and modern to me.

Since the building is landmarked, not much of the exterior is being changed, which is good. A lot of the work they have to do is rebuilding--replacing almost all of the exterior brick and resurfacing the entire pool and deck. They are using the old baskets from way back in the day as an architectural accent on the ceilings on some of the rooms, which is nice. Because they are redoing the exterior brick, it is now possible that they will be able to add a comfort station--parkspeak for restroom--on the end near the playground (I think) that would be available to all park users. That is only if the whole thing stays in scope and there are no cost overruns.

They are making it all expandable--there are spaces for a future elevator and staircase up to the roof for a rooftop cafe if that comes into play with an outside vendor.

The diving pool can't be done at this time so they are going to fill it in with dirt, then put sand on top of the dirt and make it into a volleyball court. This doesn't prevent it from becoming a diving pool at a later date, though. They are putting the pipes in for this. The peninsula is usable for a wintertime ice rink, which would be done with an outside vendor like Bryant Park.

My concern was shade. The public isn't allowed to ask questions, so it didn't get asked, but as we all know, it is hot and bright in that pool, and will be more so with the sun reflecting off the water. I'm guessing Parks won't let people bring umbrellas, so will they provide umbrellas?

Another concern is that there is no lighting for the pool to be open past sunset. All NY pools close at dusk but it would be great to have the pool accessible at night. A lot of people work during the day and would like to swim at night and as we know, it is hot at night too! Also it would be possible to do small performances at night on the peninsula, wth people seated around the pool. But maybe OSA will consider this stuff later.

Phyllis Yampolsky spoke briefly and made some good points about the symmetry of the pool and preserving some of the smaller arches, which, happily, the architect assured her had been done.

-post by Mikki