Plans are underway to turn the abandoned Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal on the Lower East Side into an underground green space. The terminal area, which is owned by the city of New York and leased to the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) is 60,000 square feet, or two-thirds the size of Gramercy Park. The terminal has been abandoned since 1948 when trolleys stopped running on the tracks.
The Delancey Underground project was created by James Ramsey, former NASA engineer and founder of RAAD Studio, an architecture and design firm on the Lower East Side, along with PopTech vice president Dan Barasch, and investment banker, R. Boykin Curry IV. The project has been funded primarily with Ramsey’s own money and he will look to private donors, grants, and loans to continue the funding.
The park, also known as The Low Line, will use solar technology that will allow plants and trees to grow underground. The solar receptors will be located above ground on the Delancey Street median and will channel sunlight underground through fiber-optic cables while filtering out harmful infrared and ultraviolet rays. The underground space will consist of promenades and seating amongst the greenery, similar to the West Side’s elevated High Line park.
The cavernous trolley terminal stretches roughly from Clinton to Essex St and is adjacent to the J/M/Z subway tracks. It contains unique architectural features such as vaulted ceilings and cobblestone linings and along with the old trolley tracks, Ramsey hopes to incorporate these historic features into the modern design of the park.
Sources:
Drew Grant, The Low Line: Delancey Underground Plans to Greenify Under NYC, New York Observer
Justin Davidson, The Low Line, New York Magazine Jen Doll, James Ramsey Tells Us About the ‘Low
Line,’ His Proposed Subterranean Sci-Fi Green Space on the Lower East Side, The Village Voice