Macro-Sea
Brooklyn-based creative studio and development practice founded by David Belt. Best known publicly for the 2010 Brooklyn rooftop dumpster pools installation that became a defining image of the early-2010s wave of low-cost / high-impact urban placemaking.
A prototype Macro-Sea dumpster pool sits on the south face of 601 Delaware in San Antonio — acquired by the project as a sculptural / future-installation piece. Its presence on the H&H property aligns the adaptive-reuse program at 601 Delaware with the broader creative-placemaking lineage Macro-Sea helped establish.
Why Macro-Sea matters for 601 Delaware
The 601 Delaware project is an adaptive-reuse of a 1932 industrial building into a mixed-use heritage venue — museum + roastery + education + events. That project type sits squarely in the lineage Macro-Sea operates in: take an existing industrial fabric, layer in a programmatic mix that activates the space without erasing it, treat the building shell as cultural content rather than as backdrop.
Specific resonances:
- The dumpster pool as a placemaking gesture. Macro-Sea’s 2010 pools demonstrated that high-impact public-realm interventions don’t require new construction — an upcycled industrial object can become destination programming. The H&H south-face courtyard plan (program vision) has the same gene: the formal 1932 courtyard restored as a venue, augmented by social-pool activation.
- New Lab and adaptive-reuse-as-program. Macro-Sea / Belt’s work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on New Lab is the canonical example of turning a stripped industrial shell into a creative-economy anchor without losing its industrial character. The H&H factory has the same starting condition — a 1932 industrial shell stripped of its original equipment (per as-is) — and a similar ambition for its second life.
- Creative-economy / cultural-economy framing. Macro-Sea’s portfolio reads as a precedent set for the kind of mixed-use heritage venue that 601 Delaware aims to be: not a museum that closes at 5 pm, not a roastery that just sells beans, but a programmed cultural site that operates day and night across multiple revenue streams.
The 601 Delaware dumpster pool prototype
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | South face of 601 Delaware, on the grass-overgrown apron in front of the building |
| Acquisition | August 2015 — one of three MOCA Tucson shipping-container pools; curator was first in line after Jim Poteet forwarded the museum sale email (mobile-pool-history) |
| Pool footprint | ~7′ × 20′ 3″ perimeter |
| Deck footprint | ~17′ 6″ × 30′ 11″; deck panels ~5′ 4″ × 5′ 3″ |
| Power | 30 A / 125 V L5-30 twist-lock (Hubbell HBL2615SW on pool + HBL2610SW on building) |
| Pump | Pentair WhisperFlo 11771 WF-23 — ¾ hp, 10.8 A, 90 gpm max |
| Capacity / fill | ~5,300 gal (~700 cu ft); ~12 hr fill at factory flow (wiki estimate) |
| Weight (empty) | ~10,000 lbs (wiki estimate — verify before crane lift) |
| Equipment on site | Sta-Rite PLM150 filter; RolaChem chlorine/acid pumps + tanks; Aqua Ultraviolet 25 W sterilizer; Pentair skimmer/light/niche parts per mobile-pool |
| Current state | On-site; disposition open — static prototype, activated courtyard pool, or rooftop crown per vision |
| Full systems compile | 601 Delaware — Building Systems § pool |
Acquisition narrative (curator wiki + public sources)
Broader lineage in mobile-pool-history and 2015 MOCA exhibition record:
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Brooklyn dumpster-pool images filed after Rackspace; Jim Poteet container-architecture thread |
| Pre-2015 | 601 Delaware acquired near Alamodome; in-ground SA pool economics rejected (~$50k dig on limestone) |
| 26 Aug 2015 | Poteet forwards MOCA email — three $80k pools, one left; down payment secured; first in line |
| Jun–Sep 2015 | MOCA Mobile Pools in Great Hall — Jocko Weyland curator; Macro-Sea donation |
| Late 2015 | Tucson inspection + farewell fundraiser; pool purchased |
| Freight | Flatbed to San Antonio; wiki names West Texas Dumpsters (BOL unverified) |
| Delivery | Wrong forklift / beached at placement (curator detail TBD) |
Still to file in raw-archives/records/: down-payment receipt, MOCA sale invoice, freight BOL, delivery photos, Danny’s Place context (wiki stub — curator to confirm).
The pool’s presence on the property is a curatorial asset — it gives the south-face courtyard a thematic anchor that ties the H&H heritage program to the broader creative-placemaking conversation Macro-Sea helped start.
Open questions
- Provenance records — narrative expanded 2026-05-27 with MOCA/AZPM public sources; purchase paperwork, freight BOL, and delivery photos still to file in
raw-archives/records/. See mobile-pool-history. - Macro-Sea relationship status — has there been direct designer contact (David Belt or Macro-Sea staff) about the prototype’s history and intended use? Worth re-establishing for any future activation.
- Activation feasibility — what does activating the prototype as a working pool require (water hookup, drainage, filtration, code clearance)? Decision in roadmap Phase 0 block F; execution in Phase 3 south-face courtyard.
- Interpretive framing — if the pool becomes a museum / exhibit piece rather than an active pool, what’s the curatorial narrative? “How Brooklyn taught us to think about industrial-shell reuse” is one direction; “the cultural lineage of the H&H second life” is another.
- Other Macro-Sea works that may be relevant precedent — the Park Avenue Tunnel summer activations, Glassphemy (Brooklyn glass-bottle smashing public-art piece), New Lab, and other Belt-led projects. Worth a short reference list for the museum / vision narrative.
See also
- places/601-delaware-street.md — the H&H factory; the pool sits on its south face
- future/601-delaware-as-is.md — captures the pool in the outdoor-structures table
- future/601-delaware-building-systems.md — pool dimensions, equipment, power
- raw-sources/research/factory-control-system-wiki/mobile-pool.md — equipment list (wiki snapshot)
- raw-sources/research/factory-control-system-wiki/mobile-pool-history.md — acquisition narrative (expanded)
- raw-sources/research/2015-moca-tucson-mobile-pools-exhibition.md — public exhibition record
- future/601-delaware-vision.md — the south-face courtyard concept the pool will be programmed into
- future/601-delaware-roadmap.md — disposition decision in Phase 0; activation in Phase 3
- synthesis/hh-coffee-factory.md — project hub
- 601 Delaware — Designation Pathway Decision