[Photo via robert_ivn/Flickr]
The McCarren Pool situation will always be a lightning rod of controversy in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, which is why we're breaking our strict NO EVENTS posting policy to bring you information on what might be the most important evening in the History. Of. Brooklyn. Tonight, at something called the Swinging 60's Senior Center(!), you?yes, you?will help the Parks Department urban plan the shit out of the pool. From an email making the rounds:
the future of the pool is being planned NOW and this is your chance to be heard!!!! The mayor wants to put in an Olympic size pool, but that leaves lots of room for other stuff! Do you want to rock out? Basketball? Bungee jumping? Rock climbing? All of the above? It could happen if you SPEAK NOW!!! It's really important that as many people as possible attend this meeting. Think of the hands on city planning fun you will have--and then yrs from now you can look at our pool, and think that you made it happen!
Those who want to rock out, all the haps on exactly what's going down are after the jump (and stay tuned tomorrow for some potential special Curbed coverage). Those who don't care, there's now a little more to hate: the presenting sponsor of this summer's free concert series at McCarren is none other than chief advertecture violator Helio. Bleh. Community Board #1, TheOpen Space Alliance(OSA), andNYC Department of Parks & Recreation invite you toan open public design and
planningsession for McCarren Park Pool improvements: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2007
5:00 PM & 7:00 PM (two sessions)
SWINGING 60'S SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER
211 AINSLIE STREET
(Corner of Manhattan Avenue)Rather than simply responding to a Parks Dept proposal, we invite you to participate in creating the design.
The Parks Dept. will give a summary of the schedule for the, and discuss budget considerations. Audience participantswillbreak into small groups, with each table hosted by two facilitators, an independent design professional and a representative fromthe Parks design department, to help sketch and document the ideas of the participants. Each table will have a large scale plan of the pool area, templates of an Olympic size pool, amulti-purpose building, tracing paper, markers, etc.
The charge for the evening will simply be that the designs must:
1) Provide swimming
2) Provide year-round use
3) Preserve and reuse the existing buildingsOther than that, everyone is free to dream (within budget constraints). The recommendations will be synthesized bythe project architects and presented at a follow-up community meeting.
· Bloomberg to Hipsters: Sink or Swim [Curbed]
· 'Burg Hipster Elitists Don't Want to Share McCarren Pool [Curbed]