Exhibition Explores the Inner Workings of Proposed Low Line Park

  • Alexander Crean
    • A rendering of what the Low Line could look like under Delancey Street. (Courtesy Delancey Underground)
    A rendering of what the Low Line could look like under Delancey Street. (Courtesy Delancey Underground)

    Let There Be Light: Low Line Exhibit
    Mark Miller Gallery
    92 Orchard Street
    Through April 29th, 12-6pm

    The team of innovators continues to push forward with a proposal for the Delancey Underground, transforming an underground trolley terminal into a public park for Manhattan’s Lower East Side. An exhibit detailing the proposal for the so-called “Low Line” will be running throughout April at the Mark Miller Gallery. The show entitled Let There Be Light was organized by Delancey Underground co-founders James Ramsey and Dan Barasch in an effort to engage the public directly with the ideas and innovations underpinning the project.

    The trolley terminal today is dark and dirty but features tall ceilings and industrial details. (Courtesy Delancey Underground)
    An example of a fiber-optic solar collector that would light the Low Line. (Courtesy RAAD Studio)

    The design seeks to reclaim the abandoned Williamsburg Trolley Terminal beneath Delancey Street, transforming the derelict space with the use of innovative solar reflectors and fiber optic cables into a sunlit subterranean park teeming with plant life. The show offers an opportunity to examine in close detail this elegant solar technology as well as early design prototypes, sketches and 3-D renderings of the proposal. Visitors are also encouraged to provide comments and suggestions for the scheme which will be reviewed by the designers as the project progresses.

    The month long display is part of a larger effort to move the design forward, the next key stage of which will be a full-scale installation of a segment of the park at the Essex Street Market to be completed in September. This will allow the community to inhabit and experience the park as it may some day feel. The proposition is an admirable and earnest reuse of the city’s urban infrastructure and an unexampled way of considering public space. Initiatives such as this may help maintain enthusiasm and momentum for the project among supporters and continue the public dialogue.

    Editor’s note: A Kickstarter campaign to build a demonstration segment of the Low Line has entered the final stretch with only a few hours left to contribute to the project, which has already substantially exceeded its goal of $100,000.

    A section showing how the solar collectors could divert sunlight into the Low Line. (Courtesy Delancey Underground)
    A rendering of what the Low Line could look like under Delancey Street. (Courtesy Delancey Underground)
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