In a story that now transcends swimming, the designers of the +Pool have raised a quarter-of-a-million dollars to fund their pool that they expect to anchor in New York’s East River.
As of posting, the project has raised $273, 114, including 6 backers who contributed over $2,500 to the project. The website Treehugger believes that this level makes it the largest civic project ever crowd-funded.
From the Kickstarter page:
If our Kickstarter goal of $250,000 is reached, we’ll be able to build the 35′ x 35′ Float Lab off the Brooklyn shore this August, giving everybody a chance to see and learn about how + POOL will clean the rivers.
The idea is to create a pool that will filter water from the East River and create a 50-meter, plus-shaped swimming pool in the heart of a city where pool space is very limited (and incredibly expensive to boot).
The float lab, which will be just shy in length of half of a standard 25-yard pool.
The group plans to have the full +Pool open in the summer of 2016, in time for the Rio Olympics, with a $15 million construction budget.
Saw this at CNET. Very interesting idea.