New York Officials Seek Investors for 'Low Line'

You may be familiar with the Essex Street Trolley Terminal if you’ve taken any interest in the so-called Low Line project, covered here. Now, perhaps reacting to public interest stirred by the Low Line’s seductive renderings and the sci-fi allure of an underground park, the MTA, which owns the property, has produced a video tour of the subterranean vacancy in an attempt to lure potential investors and design professionals. As tour guide and MTA employee Peter Hine suggests, the space is conducive to all manner of inventive reuse, not the least of which includes an elitist restaurant with views to the paupers riding on the adjacent subway line or, of course, a night club. Never does he mention the idea for a park, as his revenue-driven proposals implicitly deny the plausibility of realizing a public project such as the Low Line. Given that most public parks aren’t the High Line–meaning they generate little to zero profits for the parties involved–it seems sadly unlikely that anything remotely creative or funky as the Low Line will occupy the abandoned Trolley Terminal beneath Delancey Street any time soon.

This article originally appeared at Architizer.com, an Atlantic partner site.