The Lowline Hosts the IESNYC at the Lowline Lab
On July 26, the Lowline hosted the IESNYC and our associates at the American Society of Landscape Architects, New York Chapter (ASLA-NY) for “Inside the Design,” a wine reception, tour, and panel discussion at the Lowline Lab. We had the opportunity to hear from the visionaries behind the project who are creating an underground park in New York City. The event was timely, since the proposal to create the park had just received the green light from City Hall.
The project is a true collaboration between lighting engineers and designers, and landscape architects and horticulturists. Optical devices installed at the Lowline Lab track the sun throughout the sky every minute of every day, optimizing the amount of natural sunlight captured. The sunlight is then distributed into the lab through a series of protective tubes, directing full spectrum light into a central distribution point. A solar canopy, then spreads out the sunlight across the space, modulating and tempering the sunlight, providing light critical to sustain the plant life below. The lab contains over 3,000 plants and provides an opportunity to study plant life in the same type of environment as the future Lowline.
You might recall that “Imagining the Lowline,” an exhibit that included a preliminary mockup, received a Lumen Citation for Innovative Use of Daylighting in 2014.
Our thanks to the founders — Lowline, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, John Mini Distinctive Landscapes and Star Davis of ARUP — for a very special evening.
Photos courtesy of Kristen Richards
