Ramsey created the Lowline lab, located in the Lower-east side in Manhattan (or at least below it), to demonstrate to people the potential to grow life in unusual locations. He explains to Architect Digest, “It’s not just an underground park […] We are working toward creating a new branch of horticulture. These are simply the first baby steps toward a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to subterranean gardening, and the reuse of abandoned space underground.”
The design of this 5,000 sq foot space is really interesting and innovative as Ramsey still utilizes the sun’s rays to feed the foliage. Basically his team created a devise standing street-level to harness those rays, filtering them through a protective tube and then dispersing them over the underground site.
Currently the site is being used just as a demo with plans to re-open to the public as a functional park in 2020. He maintains a very grounded mentality and defines success as pertaining to this project — “If we can communicate to kids who come that what they’re seeing isn’t a magic trick, that math and science made all of this possible, and that turns on some switch of curiosity in their heads, than we have succeeded.”
