There's no denying that there is a shortage of space in New York City. Which is why James Ramsey, the principle designer at the New York-based RAAD Studio, has proposed an underground park to make use of "the historical bowels of the city." Ramsey and his team have proposed an ambitious plan for a park on the 1.5-acre abandoned trolley terminal located under Delancey Street on the Lower East Side. The park would have limited lighting--enough lighting to see things and grow plants--and will have the essence of Central Park.
In March, Ramsey and the Lowline’s co-founder, Dan Barasch, launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $155,000 to fund the development of the remote skylights and construct a fully functional life-size installation to show to the community and prove to the MTA that not only is their idea popular, but it’s feasible as well.
Ramsey told The Architect's Newspaper: “We’ve got this found archeological space that no one knows about. There’s this component of mystery to it that New York still does have all these secrets you can explore that you can’t find on Yelp. Going down into [the Lowline] invokes that sense of discovery and mystery as well as this element of archeological adventure, like you’re exploring a ruin. I want to capture the idea that you can explore not just horizontally but vertically. It should be a jungle gym for adults where you can do a little rambling."
Ramsey estimates that if funding and work proceeds as planned, the project will be complete and open to the public by 2016.
