Checking in on the Plans to Build the 'LowLine' Park Under New York City

Kevin Sweeting Revisits the plans for the "LowLine" park, first conceived in 2009 and still the dream of a collection of New Yorkers working to make the project a reality.

"The LowLine’s crusade to carve a park from an underutilized corner of belowground transit infrastructure is an innovative solution to a persistent problem: Community parks are a public good, and the Lower East Side is a neighborhood severely lacking in green space. The LowLine could be a subterranean respite in a neighborhood where real estate prices on the surface are inhospitable to the idea. What seems left unconsidered, however, is how it would fit into the future of a changing Lower East Side—and whose priorities “the world’s first underground park” would service."

The post details the site's history and its position—geographically and culturally—in New York City. The cause of the LowLine is currently the task of the Underground Development Foundation, which follows a similar roadmap as that of the Friends of the High Line.

Included in the long-read about the history of the project so far and the prospects of the project is a status report almost up to date: "On July 8^th 2015, the LowLine closed out its second successful Kickstarter campaign, collecting over two hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars from more than twenty-five hundred backers. The LowLine Lab, which is scheduled to open this month, will be a kind of 'open studio'—a working research space opened up for public visits."