City officials, mayor Bloomberg open Floating Pool

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently opened the Floating Pool, a swimming pool in a barge that is docked at Barretto Point Park in the Hunts Point neighborhood. The city has 54 outdoor pools open to the public which remain open through Labor Day.  Daily hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The mayor was joined by parks and recreation commissioner Adrian Benepe, Dept. of Environmental Protection commissioner Emily Lloyd, Ann Buttenwieser, who conceived the pool, and children from local recreation centers. In addition to 54 outdoor pools, the city has 12 indoor pools and 14 miles of public. The Floating Pool features a seven-lane, 25-meter swimming pool; pool house; locker rooms with showers; bathrooms; a children's spray shower; a gangplank leading to and from the barge; and other amenities. The 20,000 s/f facility is ADA compliant. The pool maximizes underused waterfront space without acquiring any new land. Buttenwieser, a leading urban and waterfront planner, collaborated with architect Jonathan Kirschenfeld, of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Associates, and naval architect Kent Merrill, of C.R. Cushing & Co., Inc., to design the Floating Pool.