McCarren Pool and Bathhouse
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
Diagram © Marvel
The overhead canopy is asymmetrically supported on concrete columns. Skylights with precast concrete fins diffuse and disperse sunlight.
Brick masonry was replaced, repaired or restored. The historic clock was replaced and reactivated, still used to set the hours for swimming sessions and lifeguard shifts.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.
The restored, open-air central archway remains as a central, organizing element of the renovated pool and changing pavilions.
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.
The restored, open-air central archway remains as a central, organizing element of the renovated pool and changing pavilions.
McCarren Pool and Bathhouse
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
Diagram © Marvel
The overhead canopy is asymmetrically supported on concrete columns. Skylights with precast concrete fins diffuse and disperse sunlight.
Brick masonry was replaced, repaired or restored. The historic clock was replaced and reactivated, still used to set the hours for swimming sessions and lifeguard shifts.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.
The restored, open-air central archway remains as a central, organizing element of the renovated pool and changing pavilions.
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.
The restored, open-air central archway remains as a central, organizing element of the renovated pool and changing pavilions.
McCarren Pool and Bathhouse
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
Diagram © Marvel
The overhead canopy is asymmetrically supported on concrete columns. Skylights with precast concrete fins diffuse and disperse sunlight.
Brick masonry was replaced, repaired or restored. The historic clock was replaced and reactivated, still used to set the hours for swimming sessions and lifeguard shifts.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.
The restored, open-air central archway remains as a central, organizing element of the renovated pool and changing pavilions.
Reactivating one of the City’s most notable WPA-era buildings after years of closure.
McCarren was one of eleven public pools opened in the summer of 1936. Designed to hold 6,000 swimmers, it operated continuously for nearly 50 years until being closed and vacated. A $50 million capital investment rehabilitated this summer-time outdoor pool. New, outdoor changing rooms built on the pool decks reflect the concrete-canopied rooftop overlook at McCarren and other pool buildings of the era. The historic, brick-clad wings have been adapted to a community facility including a basketball court, weight and cardio areas, plus multipurpose community rooms. This adaptive re-use project by Marvel re-opened the pool to the public as a year-round activities center.
Exposed concrete ribs and vault of the original structure remain as prominent elements of the interior, with glass clerestories maintaining their visual continuity.
The architecture’s monumental design and entryway remain are significant icons providing direction for the project. “Everyone should experience the archway” is core to the visitor experience of the adaptive re-use.
New open-air changing pavilions are placed between the historic bathhouse and original pool edge. The concrete canopies are kept at a minimal thickness to maintain views to and from the historic rooftop terraces and overlook. Freestanding black brick and wood walls provide privacy to the interior locker rooms.
Originally, attendants placed bathers’ clothing and shoes into wire baskets for storage. These baskets were collected from rubble piles throughout the buildings, refinished and hung from the ceilings of the entry lobbies as a memory of this historic use.
New interior partitions are clad with red tile recalling the exterior brick. The wood cladding is from the Coney Island Boardwalk, reclaimed and repurposed to McCarren from a parallel renovation project occurring at Brooklyn’s beach.
The reconfiguration of the pool includes two outdoor changing pavilions and a peninsula into the main pool with spray features during the summer and ice skating in winter.
On the pool side, the central deck and peninsula acts as a spray area for play in summer, and a flat area for ice skating in winter. Whether as mist or frozen, visitors are able to see the water immediately from the archway.
A year-round indoor recreation and community center now occupy the historic bathhouse, and the renovated pool offers a new central ‘beach’ peninsula that transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter.