The Floating Pool Lady: A Quest to Bring a Public Pool to New York City's Waterfront

by Ann L. Buttenwieser

Overview

Why on earth would anyone want to float a pool up the Atlantic coastline to bring it to rest at a pier on the New York City waterfront? In The Floating Pool Lady, Ann L. Buttenwieser recounts her triumphant adventure that started in the bayous of Louisiana and ended with a self-sustaining, floating swimming pool moored in New York Harbor.

When Buttenwieser decided something needed to be done to help revitalize the New York City waterfront, she reached into the city's nineteenth-century past for inspiration. Buttenwieser wanted New Yorkers to reestablish their connection to their riverine surroundings and she was energized by the prospect of city youth returning to the Hudson and East Rivers. What she didn't suspect was that outfitting and donating a swimming facility for free enjoyment by the public would turn into an almost-Sisyphean task. As she describes in The Floating Pool Lady, Buttenwieser battled for years with politicians and struggled with bureaucrats as she brought her "crazy" scheme to fruition.

From dusty archives in the historic Battery Maritime Building to high-stakes community board meetings to tense negotiations in the Louisiana shipyard, Buttenwieser retells the improbable process that led to a pool named The Floating Pool Lady tying up to a pier at Barretto Point Park in the Bronx, ready for summer swimmers.

Throughout The Floating Pool Lady, Buttenwieser raises consciousness about persistent environmental issues and the challenges of developing a constituency for projects to make cities livable in the twenty-first century. Her story and that of her floating pool function as both warning and inspiration to those who dare to dream of realizing innovative public projects in the modern urban landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501716010
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2021
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,025,956
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ann L. Buttenwieser is an urban planner and urban historian. She has taught at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University and at the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. She is the author of Governors Island and Manhattan Water-Bound.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Swim, Annie, Swim!
1. Fire and Water
2. The Eureka Moment
3. Waterfront in Despair
4. Hoboken Ho
5. Finding the C500
6. Contracts and Crawfish
7. Kafka on the Pier
8. Perspective Matters
9. The Orwellian Bureaucracy
10. The Big Jump
11. The Lady Moves to the Bronx
Epilogue: Swim, New York City's Children, Swim!

What People are Saying About This

author of The Accidental Playground Daniel Campo

Ann L. Buttenwieser's decades-long quest to operate a public floating pool on the New York City waterfront is an adventure into the inner workings of government. Buttenwieser remarkably succeeds where so many others have failed. Citizens with good ideas for their cities take note: perseverance is a must.

Kenneth T. Jackson

The floating pool gives joy to thousands of New York City youngsters. The Floating Pool Lady recounts with humor and passion Ann L. Buttenwieser's mission to open New York Harbor for a free swim off Barretto Point.

Daniel Campo

Ann L. Buttenwieser's decades-long quest to operate a public floating pool on the New York City waterfront is an adventure into the inner workings of government. Buttenwieser remarkably succeeds where so many others have failed. Citizens with good ideas for their cities take note: perseverance is a must.

Adrian Benepe

Never mind Molly Brown of RMS Titanic fame—meet the unsinkable Ann L. Buttenwieser! In The Floating Pool Lady, Buttenwieser recounts, with the energy of a suspense novel, her visionary quest to bring to New York City the first floating swimming pool in more than seventy-five years.

Regina Myer

A fascinating chronicle of an improbable quest to make the New York waterfront a place for all to swim, The Floating Pool Lady is also a love letter to the city. Ann L. Buttenwieser's life-long passion for the New York waterfront is evident on each page of this amazing story.