An Update on the Ambitious Lowline Project in New York

The Lowline proposal to build a "mole-man-style park under Delancey Street" in New York cleared a bureaucratic hurdle last month when it got a critical thumbs up from City Hall, according to an article by Matt A.V. Chaban, in a move that amounts to the project's first official approvals.

"After an eight-month bidding process, the Economic Development Corporation selected the Lowline as the designated developer for the underground trolley terminal at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge that has been disused for nearly seven decades," report Chaban.

Specific fundraising and development benchmarks come attached to the approval—which grants the project’s creators, James Ramsey and Daniel Barasch, control of the space. Among the project's experimental aspects that need to be proven at scale: "that their gonzo light-movers can effectively sustain an acre of vegetation underground, year-round."

The Lowline plan has been kicking around since 2012, and Planetizen's most recent check-in with the project came in September 2015, just before the opening of the Lowline Lab, which has already accepted 70,000 visitors and begun the work of proving the concept.