Skip to main content
Scientific American
  • Sign In
  • |Newsletters
  • COVID
  • Health
  • Mind & Brain
  • Environment
  • Technology
  • Space & Physics
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Subscribe
  • Current Issue
  • Sign In
  • Newsletters
      • Share
      • Latest

      Tunnel Vision: Subterranean Park to Stay Sunny with Fiber-Optic Skylights [Slide Show]

      The proposed "Lowline" in New York City would transform an abandoned belowground trolley depot into a recreational public space complete with lush flora

      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Reddit
      • Share on LinkedIn
      • Share via Email
      • Print
      Tunnel Vision: Subterranean Park to Stay Sunny with Fiber-Optic Skylights [Slide Show]
      Slideshow (6) images
      View
      Credits: Courtesy of Scientific American/Larry Greenemeier

      Tunnel Vision: Subterranean Park to Stay Sunny with Fiber-Optic Skylights [Slide Show]

        • Share
      • LOWLINE TOMORROW?: An artist's rendering of what the Lowline might look like if the project wins approval from the city and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the trolley depot... Courtesy of Delancey Undgerground
      • LOWLINE TODAY: Lowline organizers are pitching the park as a space covering more than 5,500 square meters with a five-meter-high ceiling. The park, which would feature art exhibits and food vendors alongside the subterraneous photosynthesis, would inhabit the former Williamsburg Trolley Terminal, which opened in 1903 as a depot for streetcars ferrying passengers between Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood and Manhattan's Lower East Side... Courtesy of Delancey Undgerground
      • REMOTE SKYLIGHT: The remote skylight to be installed in the actual Lowline space would use a reflective, parabolic solar collection dish outdoors to gather and concentrate sunlight. Fiber-optic cable would transmit captured solar radiation to the park; a series of domelike fixtures will use lenses and reflectors to distribute the light throughout the Lowline... Courtesy of Delancey Undgerground
      • REFLECTOR SHIELDS: The Lowline exhibit collects sunlight on the roof and channels the rays directly through a circular array of six tubes (each about 53 centimeters in diameter) into the building. The tubes, each of which contains an arrangement of mirrors and lenses, send sunlight down to three hexagonal reflector shields hanging from the center of the circle... Courtesy of Scientific American/Larry Greenemeier
      • Advertisement
      • ALUMINUM CANOPY: The exhibit—on display September 15–27—features a skylight that delivers the sun's energy from an outdoor solar collector to an indoor canopy for distribution. Living below the aluminum canopy is an impressive array of flora specially chosen for its ability to thrive in low light... Courtesy of Scientific American/Larry Greenemeier
      • LOWLINE EXHIBIT: New Yorkers are getting a glimpse this month of what the Lowline park might look like thanks to an exhibit demonstrating technology that channels enough sunlight to subterranean spaces to support plant life... Courtesy of Scientific American/Larry Greenemeier
      • Previous
      • Next
      of
      • View all
      • Link copied!
      • LOWLINE TOMORROW?:
      • LOWLINE TODAY:
      • REMOTE SKYLIGHT:
      • REFLECTOR SHIELDS:
      • ALUMINUM CANOPY:
      • LOWLINE EXHIBIT:
      Advertisement
      Advertisement

      Newsletter

      Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.

      Sign Up

      Support Science Journalism

      Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

      Subscribe Now!Support Science Journalism

      Follow us

      • instagram
      • soundcloud
      • youtube
      • twitter
      • facebook
      • rss

      Scientific american arabic

      العربية
      • Return & Refund Policy
      • About
      • Press Room
      • FAQs
      • Contact Us
      • Site Map
      • Advertise
      • SA Custom Media
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Your US State Privacy Rights
      • Your Privacy Choices/Manage Cookies
      • International Editions
      Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.

      © 2023 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc.

      All Rights Reserved.

      Scroll To Top

      Support science journalism.

      Scientific American paper issue and on tablet

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in.

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.

      Create Account

      See Subscription Options

      Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.

      You may cancel at any time.

      Sign in.