City Will Start Accepting Proposals for Underground Lowline Space

In 2009, James Ramsey and Dan Barasch started planning a solar-powered subterranean park on the Lower East Side, the underground equivalent of the High Line. They set their sites on the 60,000-square-foot abandoned Essex Street Trolley Terminal below Delancey Street and named their project The Lowline. Now, six years later, they’ve launched the Lowline Lab, “a high-tech, miniaturized precursor to the city’s first underground park,” as 6sqft put it in a recent interview with Ramsey and Barasch. Located in a vacant warehouse on Essex Street, the Lab most certainly served its purpose, as The Lo-Down is reporting that the city and MTA have finally agreed to accept proposals for the space. The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will release on Monday a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), followed by a briefing next month with Community Board 3.

Rendering via The Lowline

The site is currently owned by the city, but the MTA has a long-term lease for the space. The MTA has expressed no issues with the Lowline plans as long as it doesn’t cause them a financial burden. Earlier this week, an EDC spokesperson was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that plans for the site “would require a formal bidding process, which is needed to determine a myriad of factors—from establishing construction costs to identifying operational needs and capacity—all of which determine whether a project is appropriate and feasible.”

[Via The Lo-Down]

RELATED:

• INTERVIEW: Lowline Creator James Ramsey Discusses the Challenges of Building an Underground Park
• Lowline Underground Park Creators Want to Open “Lowline Lab,” a Research Hub and Exhibition Spot
• The Bronx May Get Its Own Lowline-Style Park at Abandoned Mott Haven Rail Tracks