Low Line Park Proposed for Trolley Station Beneath Delancey Street
The Lower East Side has already poached galleries from Chelsea, and now it wants some of that High Line cache, albeit with a twist. Indeed, there’s a new idea being floated in architecture circles of a subterranean “Low Line” park beneath the Delancey thoroughfare. That’s right, under the pavement. One to compete with that west side bastion of tourism.
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Underneath Delancey is reportedly a vast two-acre trolley terminal which once housed the cars for crossing the Williamsburg Bridge. But it’s been fallow for the last sixty years (calling Steve Duncan!). If architect James Ramsey and his team at RAAD have their way, this ambitious new project aims to be a beacon of light where there is none. According to Inhabitat:
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The park will be equipped with extensive lighting units utilizing fiber optics to channel natural daylight to the depths below. Dozens of lamppost-like solar collectors will be placed on the Delancey Street to complete this task. And as a bonus, the system the designers envision will also filter out harmful ultraviolet and infrared light, but keeping the wavelengths used in photosynthesis to foster and nourish plant growth.
None of this will happen until, at the very least, the design team achieves approval from Community Board 3. That hearing will transpire this Wednesday with the Land Use Zoning committee.
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Seems like a hokey idea. What do you think?
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