[Registration closed] April 20: The Highline Reversed: Tour the World’s First Subterranean Solar Garden

Explore and tour THE LOWLINE LAB—our amazing underground Eden below the Lower East Side

Unfortunately, we’ve reached the maximum for the Lowline Lab’s space. We’ve created a wait list (see the link below) if you’d like to be informed when a spot becomes available. Thanks very much for your patience — and interest.

We all know the High Line, New York’s popular mile-long park in the sky. But its hidden flip side, the Lowline, is still an exceptional secret. This spectacularly landscaped prototype urban park will come to life underneath an historic abandoned trolley terminal, near the Williamsburg Bridge.

Photo courtesy Len Mednick.

SWINY has arranged an exclusive tour of the Lowline Lab, the prototype for the actual park. It’s your chance to experience and learn about the innovative solar technology that brings sunlight underground, year round, into New York’s only subterranean garden. Between sunrise and sunset, all the underground plants are bathed in foot-candles of sunlight. We’ll visit the stunning garden this technology has enabled—over 3,000 plants, in dozens of different varieties, blooming in 1,000 square feet. A horticulturist and landscape architect will lead us along its pathways and explain the botany, design, and ongoing research to identify those plants that can thrive underground.

Come and discover:

  • a “remote skylight” transmitting wavelengths of light to support photosynthesis
  • parabolas, mirrors and physics directing full-spectrum light into a central distribution point
  • how a solar canopy modulates and tempers the rays to spread this sunlight across the underground space
  • sun-tracking devices that optimize the amount of sunlight that can be captured
  • the dazzlingly lush and verdant result

We’ll be led through the Lowline Lab by Thor Snilsberg, our tour guide and Executive Director of City Science. We’ll also have an informal Q&A session with members of the Lowline Lab’s solar engineering team.

When:
Wednesday, April 20
6 to 8 pm

Where:
140 Essex Street (between Rivington and Stanton)


J / M / Z / F train to Essex-Delancy

Admission:
This evening program is underwritten by SWINY, to keep costs modest.

2016 Dues-paid SWINY members $5
Non-members $15

Kids are welcome – school groups visit often. Free admission for future scientists under age 13; $5 for 13 and up.

Sign up for the wait list here: https://form.jotform.com/swiny/april-20-the-lowline

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