Ah, yes, McCarren Pool as a swimming pool. (The image above is a little something we created last summer when it was very, very hot.) Now that there’s likely to be money in the city budget for returning McCarren Pool to its intended use, the process of figuring out how to do it is more than an academic exercise. There’s a design charette for the pool on Wednsday (6/13). It’s billed as “your opportunity to sit down with your neighbors and give your input to what the future McCarren Park Pool should be” The likely architect will be on hand. Here’s some of the official release inviting people:

Community Board #1, The Open Space Alliance (OSA), and Parks & Recreation invite you to an open public design and planning charette 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 design proposal, we invite you to participate in creating the design. Parks will give a summary of the schedule for the project, and discuss budget considerations. Audience participants will break into small groups, with each table hosted by two facilitators that are architectural professionals for assistance. Each table will have a large scale plan of the pool area, templates of an Olympic size pool, a multi-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 buildings

Other than that, everyone is free to dream (within budget constraints). Each table has 30 minutes to sketch and discuss — then each table will be given 5 minutes to present their ideas to the room. The recommendations will be synthesized by the project architects and presented at a follow-up community meeting.

The Parks Department’s accommodation of public participation over the last couple of years in planning the use of the pool has not been exactly overwhelming. It’s refreshing to see the public invited for an important planning session.