A pool's birth: 2 years compressed into a few minutes
My friend Mark Jackson mixed a great little project into his work on the new pool and ice rink facility in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Mark, who studied architecture and served on the Peace Corps in Honduras, took still photographs from the steps of the project trailer each day during a two-and-a-half-year period — October 2005 to March 2007 — while he served as project manager. Mark assembled a rough-cut music video, click above, using a time-lapse of the pictures’ progression, but since Mark’s busy with grad school now, this might be the final cut. In case you’re wondering, Mark mixed together Errol Garner, Strunz Farrah, a cumbia track from the 1950s and Ratatat for his video’s soundtrack.
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Natatorium and Ice Rink — the ice rink isn’t operable just yet — went up despite obstacles such as 9/11 and the loss of the 2012 Olympic bid, for which the complex was to be the water polo venue.
At $66.3 million, it is the costliest recreation building ever built in a city park. The pool, steps from the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center, has been open to the public since late February. Membership is $75 per year.
Check out photos of NYC's historic pools, here.
-- Max Dickstein
