If there are many hurdles to be crossed in transforming a sprawling subterranean transit space into a vibrant public park, probably the largest would be not making it look like a parking garage at night all the time. Early renderings of the Delancey Underground project show the conceptualized space flooded with light from organic-looking portals positioned above smiling visitors. It all seems a bit hard to believe, until one learns that Delancey Underground project creator James Ramsey is actually forging ahead in designing a sunlight irrigation system, essentially from scratch. The sunlight irrigators will work by collecting light above ground in reflective dishes, transmitting it underground via a fiber optic cable, and then disseminating the sunlight via a reflective dimple installed in the ceiling.
Since there aren't enough people with garages in New York to fulfill the cliché, Ramsey and his partners built a small-scale prototype of their light irrigation device using CNC milled parts at the next best place: a friend's fifth floor walk-up apartment in Chinatown. Initial tests were successful and Ramsey and project co-founder Dan Barasch announced last night during a public presentation at the Trespa Design Center that a Kickstarter campaign would be launched in coming weeks to fund development of a larger-scale prototype.
· Delancey Underground [official]
· Trespa Design Centre - NY [official]
· Low Line coverage [Curbed NY]
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