Gearing up for their tango with Community Board 3 tomorrow, the ideamakers behind "The Low Line" sit down for a chat with The Lo-Down and further pique our curiosity about abandoned, underground rail stations. Oh, also: the park is officially called Delancey Underground. Architect James Ramsey, one of the three people behind the subterranean park proposal, first stumbled across the old LES trolley station while working with the MTA.
After visiting the organization's archives, the enterprising group found plans for the now-long-vacant Williamsburg Bridge Railway Terminal, which stopped service in 1948, and organized a site-seeing trip into a hidden portal below the Delancey Street subway platform. Then they let their imaginations run wild: "We started thinking, how can we activate this space, how can we make something appealing here? A very natural way to do that is to introduce natural sunlight. What happens if you (do that) is that you can actually grow some plants down there. It’s a totally bizarre fun idea but I think it makes a lot of natural sense?"
AKA just like the Egyptians, but in a "supermodern way." We're dying to hear what CB3 has to say; check back here on Thursday morning for the full report.
· A Conversation with “The Low Line” Team [The Lo-Down]
· Official site: Delancey Underground [delanceyunderground.org]
· Here Now, Renderings of "Low Line," Underground LES Park [Curbed]
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