Dong-Ping Wong Discusses
+POOL DESIGN We go one-on-one with Dong-Ping Wong, designer of the floating pool planned for NYC’s East River and find out what Plus Pool is all about. BY JOE TRUSTY Photos: Provided by Plus Pool
W
e report on our fair share of unique pool concepts at Pool Magazine. None so far this year, with the exception of possibly the Sky Pool in London, has managed to capture people’s imagination the way this project has. Plus Pool is a unique floating pool concept design that is shaped like a plus sign (+). The project has been discussed for a long time. For the past few months photos of the pool concept have begun circulating on social media once again. After years and years of pushback from the city, the Plus Pool project finally got the green light. The 285,000 gallon floating pool will have a permanent address in the East River. The minimalist pool design is the brainchild of four designers. Dong-Ping Wong and Oana Stanescu of the architecture firm Family and Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeff Franklin of the design firm PlayLab. The group originally conceived of the idea for Plus Pool back in 2010. Wong, a New York state licensed architect with a Masters Degree in Architecture from Columbia University, first conceived of the
8
POOL MAGAZINE - VOL 1, ISSUE 1
project with his friends one hot summer night roughly ten years ago.. “Basically the whole idea is to find a way to swim in natural water around New York City,” said Wong, “In this case East River water, which as you would imagine is not what you would think of as the cleanest water. So how could we swim in that safely?” asked Wong, a question we wanted to know the answer to as well. The question itself has many skeptics wondering how designers plan to pull it off. Wong explained the basic premise behind what he plans to do. “In concept, the filtration system is a big strainer. Filtration is built into the walls of the pools. Water literally flows through the walls of the pool itself into the basin.” said Wong. The Plus Pool’s filtration system will act as a giant strainer filtering over a million gallons of East River water each day. “In normal operation we expect to filter over a million gallons of water a day, but in comparison to the entire volume of the East River it’s really a drop in the bucket.” explained Wong.
