the lowline.

can you imagine a place where you could frequent with your friends and family, a place you could bring a picnic and a good book, a place that serves as a little escape from all this city madness, if you will?

now... could you imagine this place being completely underground? 

that's exactly what two very talented men are trying to create. the lowline will be an underground 1.5 acre park beneath manhattan's lower east side, located in an old trolley terminal that has been untouched since the 1940s. but the team hasn't stopped at that. these imagineers have come up with a genius concept (and mockup of a device) that would bring plant life and sunlight underground, too. through a mechanism that gathers and shoots the sun's energy, photosynthesis would be able to occur, allowing vegetation to grow. (i know, my mind was blown too.) 

the exhibit, located at the essex street warehouse, is adjacent to the old trolley terminal where this concept will hopefully come to life someday. you can almost feel the magic and reality of this future park, with audio of children laughing and birds chirping coming from nearby speakers. the sunlights and windows of the space have also been blocked out to better create the feeling of being subsurface. 

GSAPP Columbia graduates have also contributed impressive projects to the exhibit, one of which is a grid of manhattan projecting the flows of motion throughout the city. whether it be buses, tunnels, bike lanes, ferries, bridges, or subways...this projection symbolizes these modes of transportation all coming together to form one mass of constant movement. it's quite the thing to see. if you're from the area, i highly, highly recommend checking out this exhibit before it's gone. this is the (green) future. and it's incredible.

so...can you imagine this future park?

also, have you checked out the highline?