AMERICANWAY

DESIGN BY JAMES RAMSEY/RAAD, IMAGE BY KIBUM PARK/RAAD from the Williamsburg Bridge to Bowery Street in lower Manhattan. On any given day, the area bustles w ith trucks that deliver goods to discount stores, taxis that transport passengers between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and pedestrians who crisscross the four-lane boulevard at their own risk. Ramsey and Barasch discovered the mysterious ur- ban chamber by accident when Ramsey, a former NASA satellite engineer and founder of the architecture design fi rm Raad Studio, had a casual conversation with a for- mer Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee in 2008. " We fou nd out t hat t here were some 13 acres of abandoned land that existed underneath the streets W ith Manhattan's high population density and nearly 300,000 new resi- dents expected to arrive by 2030, the need for green space on the island has never been more important. Because of a lack of avail- able land for building parks, some residents have looked for a solution in the most unexpected places. James Ramsey and Dan Barasch, two 37-year-old New York na- tives, took it to an extreme: They went underground and found an abandoned trolley terminal that had not been used in more than 65 years. Their vision? The Lowline: the world's fi rst subterranean park. The terminal is under a parking lot on Delancey Street, a busy and wide thoroughfare that stretches westward INNOVATION Parks and Recreation (Underground) CONQUERING NEW (UNDERGROUND) FRONTIERS: Two in- novators are attempt- ing to breathe new life into an abandoned trolley terminal. In New York City, where land is at a premium, two native sons found the perfect place to build a new urban park. It just happens to be BELOW STREET LEVEL. By Shir ley J. V el a squ ez 4 4 D EC E M B E R 2 01 4 A A .CO M/A M E R I C A NWAY

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