+POOL-NYC-East-River-Filtering-Pool-ProjectRendering from +POOL

In honor of the warm weather (hopefully) dawning on the city soon, we thought we’d share a list of New York’s most notable swimming pools–from historically significant ones in ruins, a floating public pool in the works, to ones crowning five star hotels. What follows is a list of notable pools around the city.

1. Woolworth Building Pool


The Woolworth Building pool

In the depths of the the Woolworth Building, one of New York’s most iconic landmarks, rests the remnants of a Pompeii-inspired pool. Covered extensively in our The New York City That Never Was column, the pool was designed by Woolworth Building architect Cass Gilbert and used until 1999 as part of the Jack Lalane health club. Today, it is undergoing renovation as part of the partial conversion of the Woolworth Building into luxury condominiums.
Check out our photos of the pool in its abandoned state, pre-renovation. Note our upcoming tour of the building, led by Cass Gilbert’s great granddaughter
VIP Tour of the Woolworth Building


2. Hotel St. George Pool, Brooklyn


We recently covered the discovery of the legendary Hotel St. George pool by Scouting NY. Though thought to be lost, the pool remains in tact beneath another smaller pool and the wooden floor of the gym. Many notable celebrities traversed the halls of the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights, and the luxury of the hotel, manifested in the pool, gained great fame. The pool is unique on this list in that it was filled with salt water.
Read more about the illustrious history of the Hotel St. George and the other remnants you can still see.