The Lowline: Bringing sunlight underground on the Lower East Side

Tuesday, April 12, 2016
The Lowline: Bringing Sunlight Underground
An ambitious plan to make Manhattan greener will bring sunlight underground, and turn an abandoned trolley station into a public park!

NEW YORK -- New Yorkers are all too used to blocks being built up - but now one group is aiming to build down, and add more green space to our city!

The concept behind The Lowline is to harness innovative solar technology and physically bring sunlight underground. The result: An abandoned, historic trolley terminal will turn into an illuminated underground park - a beautiful respite from the city and a cultural attraction right in one of the most citified urban environments in the country.

The site is an acre below Delancy Street in Manhattan, the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal. It has sat abandoned for decades - but now a group is determined to turn it into a stunning public space; a place where park visitors and subway riders share green space that is lit up - underground - with actual sunlight.

The goal is to begin work on the park in the next two years, and open it by 2020.

Watch the video for much more on this ambitious project to make Manhattan greener.