The Lowline

In the future we’ll ride elevators underground into the park, and hike through subterranean forests.

At least, we will if the Lowline, which aims to be the world’s first underground public park, moves forward. The proposed site, a former trolley station at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, has been unused since 1948 and is now part of a massive urban renewal project, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. To demonstrate the technology that will allow a forest to flourish underground, the teams behind the Second Avenue subway and the High Line projects have constructed a miniature version of the park called Imagining the Lowline, currently on view in the Essex Street Market.

Housed in a warehouse that has had its lights blacked out in order to to simulate a tunnel, the demo includes a small hill with a Japanese maple, shrubs, mushrooms and pungent peat moss. On the roof, a superstructure of solar panels tracks and captures sunlight as it moves across the sky, then beams the wavelengths into the building, where it’s redistributed over the hill by a paneled canopy. For the purposes of the exhibit, the designers chose plants that tend to flourish in lower light, conditions found naturally on the forest floor.

(Behold, the sun!)

While it’s just a demonstration, it’s a mind-blowing concept to see in action. Manhattan has been an innovator in growing vertically for over a hundred years, since it lacks the ability to expand outward, but rarely has anyone (beside the Mole People) thought of claiming the vast tunnels underground. The Lower East Side is an ideal location too, since it has a dearth of greenery. But with a proposed price tag of $30 to $50 million and and timeline of five to eight years to complete, it’s not clear the Lowline will actually get built. After all, they’ve been talking about building the Second Avenue subway since 1929.

The installation is open until September 23rd, so for now you can have a peek and marvel at a glimpse of our sci-fi future. Can subterranean artists’ bunkers and basement food festivals be far behind?

Imagining the Lowline
Essex Street Warehouse, entrance on Broome Street at Essex Street
Open September 19-23rd 12-6pm