And now for something completely different… simply by proposing a new park, three New York entrepreneurs have made waves among Manhattanites, urban planners and architecture nerds. The reason: their want to put the park completely underground, in a defunct trolley station on the Lower East Side, which looks like this:
The project, which has been nicknamed “The Low Line” after the successful High Line park on a former elevated track in Chelsea, seems farfetched to me. We here at Urban Plant Research have seen – and even filmed – many plants thriving several feet below street level, but an entire park completely underground?
I am dubious, despite their grand plans for importing all the sunlight from above ground via fiber optics. I have my doubts whether plants or people can be happy in a completely subturranean environment, even if these renderings from the architects make both trees and humans look remarkably cheerful:
I must admit, however, that the renderings are stunning. So far, though, it’s just a pipe dream. Should this dream come true? Let us know what you think!
Terminal photo by Danny Fuchs (2nd image), architectural renderings (images 1, 3 and 4) by Raad Studio. All photos via New York Magazine.
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I would love to walk through this park and listen to some accordion music!
Hey Berlinplants, your comment now makes me feel like my post on this fantastical idea was a bit too sourpuss-ish. I guess my criticism of the project is coming from my pragmatic side – while it would probably be lovely when first finished, if it doesn’t age well or receive enough funding to stay fresh and pleasant, will it disintegrate into a creepy sci-fi netherworld full of unsavory characters? Something about the space being underground makes it seem like it could rapidly become dark and dangerous!
But practical worries aside, I totally agree, if I could just step into those pictures and hang out with the accordion player for an hour right now, that would be great. It does look wonderful.
I love this idea. And the accordion, how wonderful! I do still find the current photo very fascinating. I’d like to walk through that also. :) Thanks so much for sharing this!
Katie, good point – I would love a chance to see the trolley terminal in its current state! It looks amazing. I know there’s a whole community of subway enthusiasts out there who document places like this, sometimes sneaking into them to explore. We had a little brush with subway fandom when we did our installation in the subway, an Urban Plant Quiz on a billboard.