Lowline Young Designers Program
Local school kids reveal their vision for an underground park on the Lower East Side
This weekend, at NYC’s Mark Miller Gallery, an enthusiastic and clever bunch of middle-schoolers shared their visions—and plans—for the future of the city. The exhibit, which will run through March 9 and is sponsored by the Lowline’s Young Designers Program, revealed the vision of local school children for an underground park in the Lower East Side, and how such a marriage of technology, geography and nature could affect their community. Some of the concepts, though for a local park, were entirely universal and reflect what is sure to be the ideas and fantasies of many kids the world over.
Over several months, the Lowline—an organization trying to build the world’s first massive underground park, under Delancey Street—worked with neighborhood middle schools, having an architect talk to the students about not just the scientific and technological dimensions of their project, but the historic, community and political considerations as well.
The kids were asked to survey their communities to assess what their neighbors would like to see in such a park, before building 3D models of their own underground park, which showcased their visions. The budding designers, featured in the slideshow, shared their exciting ideas for the future.
Photos by Ali Cherkis
