Ambitious plans unveiled to create two-acre underground oasis in New York

**The Lawspeaker** · 09-27-2011, 02:09 PM

We've got the High Line, now for the Low Line: Ambitious plans unveiled to create two-acre underground oasis in New York

Thousands of New Yorkers have delighted in walking the city's High Line, an urban park constructed on an abandoned elevated railway in west Manhattan.

Now developers hope an ambitious subterranean version, including trees, pools and walkways, will prove equally as popular.

The project, being affectionately nicknamed the Low Line, seeks to transform a disused trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street in the Lower East Side into a functional park, using solar technology to channel sunlight underground to grow plants.

Underground oasis: Renderings from the Delancey Underground project by RAAD Studio, which aims to transform a 60,000 square foot abandoned trolley tunnel into a sunlit subterranean park.

Landmark? The project, being affectionately nicknamed the Low Line, would include a lawn, pools, walkways, seating, as well as trees and plants.

Derelict: The terminal itself, beneath the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, was abandoned in 1948 and is the property of the MTA.

The project would use a 'remote skylight' system, which channels sunlight along fibre-optic cables, filtering out harmful ultraviolet and infrared light, but keeping the wavelengths used in photosynthesis.

The plan, officially called Delancey Underground, comes from James Ramsey, a former NASA engineer and founder of the design an architecture firm RAAD Studio; Dan Barasch, vice president of PopTech, which is focused on providing socially innovative technology; and R. Boykin Curry IV, a partner at a New York investment firm who also co-founded the Lower East Side’s Girls Prep Charter School.

The terminal itself, beneath the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, was abandoned in 1948 and is the property of the MTA, which has been open to discussing the project, New York magazine and The Lo-Down reported.

The underground oasis would include a lawn, pools, walkways, seating, as well as trees and plantings sitting below built-in solar roofs.

'Technology enables us to create an appealing green space in an underserved neighbourhood,' architect Ramsey told New York magazine.

'We're channelling sunlight the way they did in ancient Egyptian tombs, but in a supermodern way.'

Mr Ramsey envisions a stand of dozens of lamppost-like solar collectors on the Delancey Street median, feeding a system of fixtures down below.

Rave reviews: The idea drew a warm reception from a crowd at the local community board meeting last week, during the project's first public review.

'I felt like like Indiana Jones': The 60,000-square foot space attracted architect James Ramsey's eye for its archaeological features.

Mr Ramsey told how he came to the idea after taking a tour of the space with an MTA employee and deciding it was 'probably the most compelling of all the [unused] underground spaces' he had seen.

The 60,000-square foot space attracted Mr Ramsey's eye for its archaeological features. 'It felt a little bit like Indiana Jones,' he said of his visits to the site.

'The MTA gave us a tour in March,' he told New York magazine. 'It's very different than most subway stations. It's an old trolley terminal, and it's a historical space from the turn of the last century.

'Several things struck us. It's cavernous - it's kind of like the scene in Lord of the Rings when they walk into the mountain and go into the dwarf cave, this large, spectacular space.

'We were immediately struck by also, this thing is covered in cobblestones, and the old tracks are in there, the vaulted ceilings.

'That historical quality is something I'd love to see carry through, but with an ultra modern almost sci-fi insertion of greenery running through.

'I'm kind of a sucker for that sort of thing. In 1948 they turned off the trolleys, and it's just been pretty much in the same state since. I didn't see a single rat. I think it's pretty clear that once upon a time, in the last 60 years, people had been sleeping there, which is expected. It was an adventure.'

The idea drew a warm reception from a crowd at the local community board meeting last week, during the project's first public review, DNAInfo.com reported.

'I thought, "Wow!"' committee chair David McWater told DNAinfo.com.
In the meeting, Mr Ramsey cited the Lower East Side's lack of green space and said the terminal's location could act as a 'focal point' for the neighbourhood.

Since the project is still in the very preliminary stages, the creators and committee both agreed to wait to discuss the proposal in more detail at a later date.

The area around the terminal is part of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), a swath of vacant lots whose future development is currently being debated by Community Board 3.

Source: Daily Mail (27th September 2011)