The floating pool project known as +POOL has received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Which is good news for anyone who has ever dreamed of riding an inflatable mechanical bull in the middle of the East River.
This week, we continue our series of deep dives into the histories of storied addresses.
Metropolitan Pool and Recreation Center on the corner of Metropolitan and Bedford Avenues (Nicki Fleischner).
It was a morning for nostalgia when Charles Hart won the bid to demolish Grand Army Hall on February 7, 1898. The building was a Brooklyn icon in sorry disrepair. Its roof leaked, its wooden floors had rotted, and the entire northern wall leaned over Metropolitan Avenue, threatening to collapse onto pedestrians below. Just 35 years ago the building had been constructed as an Armory during the Civil War, and now its very existence was a “menace to life and limb.”
Have you no time to haul out to Rockaway? Are you close to home and looking to be submerged in something other than sweat? Lucky for you the city provides its residents with tons of options for a free swim — and we’re not talking about the fountain in Washington Square Park. If you haven’t found your swimming hole of choice just yet, it’s best not to take a blind jump into some mystery bath. More →