New York City has opened the door to the Lowline, the world’s first subterranean park, after it began inviting proposals for the disused Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal.

Lowline co-founders James Ramsey and Dan Barasch have long eyed up the 60,000 sq ft underground site – located beneath Delancey Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side – and could now get a chance to realise their plans. The city’s call for ‘expressions of interest’ follows last month’s opening of the Lowline Lab, a test bed for subterranean park concept.

‘New York in general is a very hard-scaped city. Oftentimes, a lot of our most historic neighbourhoods are ones that are underserved by public space or green space,’ Ramsey told The Spaces before the opening of the Lowline Lab. ‘The Lower East Side, where the Lowline [would be] located, is one of these neighbourhoods.’

A spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), which is inviting proposals for the former trolley terminal, told The Lo-Down that it would be looking for ‘creative responses to activate the space’.

A decision on the future of the site, closed off since 1948, will be made after 23 December, which is the deadline for expressions of interest.