In a city of skyscrapers, cabs and closet-sized apartments, New Yorkers might soon be able to find their open green space underground.
Entrepreneurs Dan Barasch, R. Boykin Curry IV and James Ramsey are working to build a community green space the size of Gramercy Park below ground. The high-tech, subterranean park called the Delancey Underground is intended to replace a two-acre abandoned trolley terminal beneath the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
The developers plan to use advanced technology to channel sunlight underground and enable vegetation and plant life to grow.
“The concept that we might be able to create green space in some incredibly congested neighborhoods, in square footage no one really knew even existed, was something super compelling to us,” said James Ramsey, architect and co-founder of the Delancey Underground Project. “Add to that the coupling of an incredibly cool blend of cutting edge design and urban archeology, and you have a concept that we are quite literally prepared to devote our lives to.”
While the project is only in its preliminary stages and no official date of completion has been released, the developers have been working closely with New York City Community Boards and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The project will run in tandem with plans for the adjacent Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, a large-scale urban renewal project to develop new properties between Delancey and Grand streets with a concentration on lower-income housing.
According to Ramsey, funding for Delancey will be from a variety of models, from special types of loans or private, tax-deductible donations, to federal tax credits. The total cost and completion date for the project have not been determined.
However, despite the creators’ enthusiasm for the project, the Delancey group is facing a number of issues that need to be addressed.
“So far, concerns have surfaced surrounding the usual associations we New Yorkers have about underground stations — light, rats, dirt, et cetera,” Ramsey said.
On the other hand, Louise Harpman, clinical associate professor of global design at NYU, believes the Delancey Underground is a laudable endeavor.
“The designers take something that is forlorn and overlooked and make it a destination,” she said.