How NYC's East River Could Get Its Own Floating Pool

A floating pool may be coming to New York City's East River in the near future. CREDIT: PlusPool.org View full size image

A group of designers are working on an initiative to build a floating pool in New York City’s East River that will filter water from the river itself.

The designers are creating a pool not on the river, but within the river itself, using an innovative infiltration system that is still in the creation process. They are still trying to raise money to start preliminary infiltration tests.

"When it’s an incredibly hot summer, the first thing you want to do is jump in a pool," one of the designers said in a video message on their website, PlusPool.org. "We looked at the river as something we would like to get into and how surreal it would feel to actually be in that river and see what the city looked like from it."

The +Pool will be made up of four different pools put together — a children’s pool, sports pool, lap pool and lounge pool to form a giant plus sign, creating a sleek design that resembles an intersection.

The + Pool's design filters river water through the pool's walls, similar to a giant strainer dropped into the East River. The concentric layers of filtration materials that make up the sides of the pool are designed to remove bacteria, contaminants and odors, leaving only safe and swimmable water that meets city, state and federal standards of quality, according to the site.

"This pool will be the first of its kind, which is of course very exciting, but really we just want to be able to swim in the river,” the site said.

The site also notes that the pool can be used independently to cater to all types of swimmers, combined to form an Olympic-length lap pool or opened completely into a 9,000 square foot pool for play.

In the first few days, the designers have raised $25,000 and are still accepting donations on the site.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Reach TechNewsDaily senior writer Samantha Murphy at smurphy@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @SamMurphy_TMN