We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
New York’s public pools are joyfully oversubscribed through their short, hot seasons. Like a library, but more fun, pools are social infrastructure: Long lines for entry and marginally extended hours during heatwaves point to an enduring and increasing need to splash, squeal, and cool down poolside. This summer, the brand new Gottesman Pool in Central Park — STR Architects’ replacement for the 1966 Lasker Pool and Rink — was especially popular. That pool, capacity 1,000, will reopen as an ice skating rink in November. But the city’s other 52 outdoor public pools will lie fallow until the end of next June, acres of recreational resource going unused. While pay-for-play baths and megapool developments become bigger business, and much-hyped pool innovations (benefitting from public support) have yet to deliver on their promises, the well-loved public system has barely expanded since the early 1970s. In the meantime, the city’s population has grown by about a million people and average summer temperatures have increased by 3°F. Why doesn’t the city’s swim-scape keep up with growing demand?
Perhaps the same prosaic forces plaguing other public systems are to blame — whether an eked-out extra hour of swimming, or a crushing closure due to lifeguard shortages, it might be money and motivation that matter in the end. But lack of imagination is another answer. In the speculative proposals below, Karolina Czeczek offers relatively low-intensity approaches to make the most of what we already have, stretching the footprint, and season, of the pool system a bit further with a light and clever touch. These proposals emerged out of an ongoing research project on the city’s public pools, which Czeczek shared with UO back in 2021. Revisiting these public assets, she sketches a network of communal laundries, outdoor art spaces, and even public saunas. These visions of “pool party progressivism” propose a good time as a public benefit. With growing attention to the material qualities of life in the city, and newfound interest in what city government, even with constrained resources, can do for residents, ‘tis the season for a little more municipal joie de vivre.
All 64 public pools in New York City operate for a mere ten-week period during the summer, from the last weekend in June to the second weekend in September. This short swimming season, mostly due to a shortage of lifeguard and security staff, leaves the pools and their grounds unused for more than two thirds of the year. Aside from efforts to build more aquatic facilities, like the recently opened Gottesman Pool in Central Park and the “Plus Pool” currently under development, there is an untapped opportunity here: to both extend the swimming season and adapt the pool grounds into community spaces with rotating uses all year round.
With the integration of policy, innovative programming, and architectural design, the city’s existing pools might be reimagined as sites for social gathering, education, health . . . and year-round swimming. The following speculative interventions — ranging from programmatic extensions to architectural interventions — have been applied to five distinct typologies of New York City pools. Some, such as inflatable pool covers and sauna structures, are designed to extend the swimming season and expand the city’s bathing culture. Others focus on reimagining existing pool buildings and grounds as year-round recreational facilities, cooling centers, and performance venues. Lastly, at Brooklyn’s Kosciuszko Pool, we envision a new indoor bathing, recreation, and lifeguard training center, along with a partial permanent pool cover and smaller interventions that highlight the pool’s exceptional architecture and make it more accessible for users.
These proposals draw on research into global bathing cultures, time spent at each site, conversations with pool users, and investigation of past policy initiatives. We hope to spark a broader public conversation around the importance of free and accessible spaces for public recreation, and offer a starting point for meaningful change.
Metropolitan Pool, Brooklyn
Built in 1922, designed by Henry Bacon
In 1895, New York State mandated the establishment of public baths in all cities with more than 50,000 residents. Until then, to maintain personal hygiene, wash laundry, cool off, and swim, New Yorkers had relied on floating pools in the East and Hudson Rivers, as well as natural bodies of water. The first municipal bath in New York City, the Rivington Street Bath, opened in 1901. By 1915, 15 more public facilities had been established in Manhattan, along with eight in Brooklyn, and one each in Queens and the Bronx. Inspired by European models, these facilities offered public showers, tubs, laundries, and “comfort stations” (public toilets). As plumbing became more widespread in private homes, public baths became less essential. Some bathhouses adapted by incorporating gymnasiums and swimming pools, allowing them to function as recreational spaces and offering much needed relief during the summer heat. In 1940, several public baths were renovated, but most were closed in the years following World War II. Several former bathhouses, including the Metropolitan Pool in Brooklyn, survive today, repurposed as indoor public swimming pools and recreation centers.
Proposal: Public Laundry
Building on the history of public baths, what if the City reintroduced public laundromats into former bathhouse buildings? Visitors could do their laundry while attending swim classes or fitness programs, no longer having to choose between exercise and domestic duties. In addition to serving a practical need, these laundromats could act as social gathering spaces and serve as clothing donation drop-off points.
Astoria Pool, Queens
Built in 1936, designed by John M. Hatton, Aymar Embury II, and Gilmore Clarke
In 1936, eleven large public swimming complexes opened across New York City, built with funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of the New Deal’s sweeping investment in infrastructure, and with major support from New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. The pools departed from the utilitarian function of public baths, instead providing space for safe swimming, social gathering, and recreation. These Olympic-size complexes, equipped with the latest cleaning, heating, and lighting systems, also accommodated other uses: from indoor recreational facilities and public performances to outdoor sports in the off-season. They represented a new kind of public architecture, and an evolving approach to recreation and gender integration in public space. All the WPA-era pools have been in continuous use through the present day except for McCarren Park Pool, which closed in 1983, was threatened with demolition, and then briefly served as a performance venue in the early 2000s before it was finally renovated and reopened for swimming in 2012.
Proposal: Cooling & Warming Center and Performance Venue
What if we weatherized and adapted all WPA pool-adjacent recreational buildings into designated cooling centers in the summer and warming centers in winter and shoulder seasons? For this proposal, we looked at Astoria Pool, the largest in the city. The former diving pool area on the southern end of the pool can become a year-round performance venue, capitalizing on its existing scale, shape, and auditorium seating to host public programming like dance performances, theater groups, and film screenings.
Abraham Lincoln Mini Pool, Manhattan
Built in the late 1960s, designer unknown
The second pool-building era in New York City began after John Lindsay became mayor in 1966. One of his main campaign platforms was to address the scarcity of recreation spaces, including water facilities and cooling infrastructure, in underserved areas of the city. Lindsay’s administration built nearly 60 mini pools, siting them in public plazas, parks, and playgrounds. Compared with WPA-era facilities, mini pools differed significantly in form, size, and distribution. The first mini pools were designed as aboveground, prefabricated, portable structures of fixed size (40 by 20 feet and 3 feet deep) that could be quickly assembled, dismantled, and moved to other parts of the city. Some took the form of “swimmobiles,” pools mounted on trucks that would circulate through neighborhoods on hot summer days. Many of the original mini pools still exist today, and some, like the Abraham Lincoln Pool, have been renovated and converted into in-ground pools.
Proposal: Seasonal Sauna
What if we installed saunas on top of mini pools during the shoulder and winter seasons? Aside from their health benefits, public saunas introduce a new and alternative way to engage with bathing culture. Like the original portable mini pools, temporary sauna structures could be placed above any mini pool, providing a new public facility and winter cover for the basin. Additionally, built-in auditorium seating would serve as a community gathering space, outdoor classroom, or seating for movie screenings.
Mapes Pool, Bronx
Built 1970-1972, designed by Heery & Heery Architects
In the early 1970s, also during the Lindsay administration, the City began constructing larger “vest-pocket” pools in densely populated neighborhoods, primarily located within parks or adjacent to public schools in densely populated neighborhoods. Vest-pocket pools feature uniformly sized intermediate swimming pools (75 by 60 feet and 3.5 feet deep) and wading pools (12 by 12 feet and 1 foot deep), accompanied by repeatable building modules. While all vest-pocket pools are made up of the same elements, their arrangement varies depending on the site. The modules can be used individually as shading structures or combined to house changing rooms, toilets, maintenance facilities, and other support functions. These modules are composed of prefabricated structural elements, such as concrete columns, beams, and roofs topped by concrete squares known as “monitor volumes,” which improve air circulation. They are enclosed with prefabricated wall panels and a system of louvers. In 2018, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation’s Cool Pools initiative upgraded 16 vest-pocket pools with wall art, additional seating, planters, and programming.
Proposal: Inflatable Pool Cover
What if vest-pocket pools had temporary, inflatable pool covers to extend the swimming season beyond the summer? A heated enclosure would allow free, public Learn to Swim programs to continue during the school year, providing more children with lifesaving skills. A longer swimming season would also offer additional exercise opportunities for adults. The modular nature of vest-pocket pools, which originally allowed for their rapid deployment across the city, allows them to accommodate a simple, adaptable cover that could be used at any of the sites.
Kosciuszko Pool, Brooklyn
Built 1971, designed by Morris Lapidus
Kosciuszko Pool represents one of several atypical public pools that don’t belong to any of the previous typologies. The architectural and social ingenuity of the Kosciuszko Pool — K-Pool, or the People’s Pool, as it is often called — is readily visible in the many ways people use its brutalist concrete forms. Half building, half urban landscape, the pool’s design enables a wide range of concurrent activities: play, exercise, and socializing. A large, raised volume dedicated to the playground incorporates mechanical exhausts and pipes as play features. Swimming pools are surrounded by stepped blue sun decks and bleachers that echo the walls ringing the pool deck. Today, the smaller pools and the raised playground remain fenced off due to accessibility and operational issues. The architecture that once embraced joy seems to be missing it.
Proposal: Recreation Center
What if a retractable roof over half the existing pool, in addition to night lighting, could extend daily swimming hours and the pool season? Additionally, the proposal explores the natural filtration system of the pool and adds accessibility throughout. On an adjacent, vacant, and city-owned property, there could be a new indoor aquatic center with water facilities, a gym, community space, offices, and a lifeguard training center. New trees, cooling stations, and shading around the pool grounds would reduce the heat island effect and provide cooling during heat waves, which are expected to be more frequent and intense in the future.
All photographs copyright Anna Morgowicz.
All drawings copyright Karolina Czeczek unless otherwise noted.
The views expressed here are those of the authors only and do not reflect the position of The Architectural League of New York.
Comments