A huge new pool at the northern end of Central Park is about to open for the summer after years of work.
The Gottesman Pool is the centerpiece of the new $160 million Davis Center near the Harlem Meer. With room for more than 1,000 swimmers, it’s among the largest public pools in New York City.
The gorgeous oval-shaped pool, which was designed to blend in with the park’s greenery, is set to open Friday, along with the city’s other 51 public pools. The center officially opened to the public at the end of April.
People were clamoring to get in the pool a week before its official opening date, with some passerby likening it to an oasis. The new pool replaced the outdated Lasker Rink & Pool.
“This is a hundred times better,” said Carlos Arcas, a retired airline worker who was eating lunch on an overlook constructed above the 285-foot-long pool.
“When sitting here, I don’t feel like I’m in New York,” he added. “They did some job over here.”
Workers were still putting the finishing touches on the bathrooms.
The new facility features an atrium with a wall of glass doors that open to the pool deck. There’s also space for distribution of free lunches to city schoolchildren.
While the pristine new pool evokes the Standard Hotel and the new facility features sleek finishes like an Apple store, it’s still a public pool. No identification is required for entry, no booze is allowed and only plain white shirts can be worn on the pool deck.
The pool space will be converted to a turf field in the fall and an ice rink in the winter. Officials with the Central Park Conservancy said that process takes about 18 days.
A woman passing by shouted a flurry of thank-yous to the workers standing near the pool Friday, including Mark Focht, the chief operating officer of the city parks department.
“It’s great. So many people have been stopping by the gate, and just asking when we’re going to open,” Focht said. “They’ve been without a pool for five years serving Harlem, serving the community north of Central Park.”
