Remember the case in 2009, where New York City transformed an abandon garden into a sky garden called “High Line”? Different creative and research groups have since been pitching ideas, hoping to become one of the key players in this growing field of urban greening. Recently, a greening project inspired by “High Line” is progressing in full swing. Entitled as “Lowline”, the establishment of this project will definitely subvert our initial concept towards the urban space once again.
Compared to “High Line” sky garden, “Lowline” is determined to build an underground garden, located in the lower east side of the area, taking over 60, 000 square feet of underground space. This field was once the tram terminus of the Williamsburg Trolley Terminal, which has been closed ever since 1948. Former NASA engineer and architect, James Ramsey, is the founder of this project. He has started fund raising on Kickstarter ever since the year 2012, and has now raised $155, 186. For the project, he has collaborated with Raad studio to create “Remote Sky Light”, a solar concentrator technology, which utilizes an automatic sunroof system to collect sunlight off the ground. The energy is then transported to underground fiber optic cables through light pipes. This way, the underground plants have adequate wavelength and energy to photosynthesize.
“Lowline” is scheduled to be completed in 2020. Although there is still some time before its due date, the organizers have recently hosted an open laboratory visit program for New Yorkers to experience the “Low Line” underground garden first hand. “The Spaces”, an architectural design platform, has produced a three-minute long short film, to introduce this space, which measures at a fifth of the size of Willamsburg, and the sixty species of plants to be included in the garden. This visit program will open its doors for up to five months, so those who will be visiting New York can mark it down on their trip list.
