My dream is to build the world's first underground park in New York City. Now, why would someone want to build an underground park, and why in New York City?
我的夢想是在紐約建造 世界上第一個地底公園。 那為什麼有人想要 打造地底公園? 而且為什麼在紐約?
These three tough little buggers are, on the left, my grandmother, age five, and then her sister and brother, ages 11 and nine. This photo was taken just before they left from Italy to immigrate to the United States, just about a century ago. And like many immigrants at the time, they arrived on the Lower East Side in New York City and they encountered a crazy melting pot. What was amazing about their generation was that they were not only building new lives in this new, unfamiliar area, but they were also literally building the city. I've always been fascinated by those decades and by that history, and I would often beg my grandmother to tell me as many stories as possible about the old New York. But she would often just shrug it off, tell me to eat more meatballs, more pasta, and so I very rarely got any of the history that I wanted to hear about.
這邊有三個小屁孩, 左邊那位是我的奶奶,當時五歲, 旁邊是她的姐姐和哥哥, 分別是 11 歲和 9 歲。 這張照片剛好在 他們離開義大利前, 準備移民到美國時拍下的, 大約是一百年前的事了。 跟同期的移民者一樣, 他們都來到紐約的下東城。 也遇到了瘋狂的種族大熔爐。 他們這世代最讓人驚豔的是, 他們不只是在這嶄新、生疏的地方 建立起新的生活。 而是真的建立起這座城市。 我非常嚮往那段數十年的光陰 以及那段歷史。 我也常常拜託我奶奶 告訴我越多舊紐約的故事越好。 但她總是很淡定, 只告訴我多吃點肉球和義大利麵。 所以我很難得 會得到我想要聽的歷史故事。
The New York City that I encountered felt pretty built up. I always knew as a kid that I wanted to make a difference, and to somehow make the world more beautiful, more interesting and more just. I just didn't really know how. At first, I thought I wanted to go work abroad, so I took a job with UNICEF in Kenya. But it felt weird to me that I knew more about local Kenyan politics than the politics of my own hometown. I took a job with the City of New York, but very quickly felt frustrated with the slowness of government bureaucracy. I even took a job at Google, where very fast I drank the Kool-Aid and believed almost wholeheartedly that technology could solve all social problems. But I still didn't feel like I was making the world a better place.
我認識紐約的時候, 紐約就已經差不多成形了。 從小我就知道我想要 有所作為,甚至可以 讓這個世界變成更美麗、更有趣、 更公平的地方。 但我只是不知道該怎麼做。 一開始我以為自己想到國外工作, 所以我接下了 聯合國兒童基金會肯亞的工作。 但我覺得非常的奇怪, 因為我對肯亞當地的政治 遠比自己家鄉的政治還要了解。 我之後得到紐約市政府的工作。 可是很快地我對政府的 官僚制度感到很挫敗。 我甚至還在 Google 工作, 很快地我就全盤通收, 幾乎全心全意地深信 科技可以解決所有的社會問題。 可是我卻不覺得我有 讓這個世界變得更好。
It was in 2009 that my friend and now business partner James Ramsey alerted me to the location of a pretty spectacular site, which is this. This is the former trolley terminal that was the depot for passengers traveling over the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and it was open between 1908 and 1948, just around the time when my grandparents were living right in the area. And we learned also that the site was entirely abandoned in 1948. Fascinated by this discovery, we begged the authorities to draw us into the space, and we finally got a tour, and this is what we saw. Now, this photo doesn't really do it justice. It's kind of hard to imagine the unbelievably magical feeling that you have when you get in this space. It's a football field of unused land immediately below a very crowded area of the city, and it almost feels like you're Indiana Jones on an archaeological dig, and all the details are all still there. It's really pretty remarkable.
2009 年時,我的朋友 兼我的合作夥伴詹姆斯·拉姆齊 讓我注意到一個很壯觀的地點, 就是這裡。 這地方以前是電車站, 是乘客從布魯克林區經由 威廉斯堡橋到曼哈頓的 火車站, 於 1908 年到 1948 年之間使用。 那時我祖父母剛好 住在那個地區。 我們也得知這個地方 在 1948 年就已經完全廢棄。 因為對這個發現非常的著迷, 我們請求當局讓我們看看這地方。 我們終於能進去參觀, 這就是我們所看到的景象。 但這張照片無法表達火車站全貌, 很難憑空想像出,當你進到這個空間時 所體會到那無法言喻的魔幻力量, 這區域就像沒人使用的足球場, 就在城市中非常擁擠區域的正下方, 這地方讓人覺得你就是印第安那·瓊斯, 正在做考古發掘。 我們仍可以看到所有的細節, 這真的非常棒。
Now, the site itself is located at the very heart of the Lower East Side, and today it still remains one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the city. New York City has two thirds the green space per resident as other big cities, and this neighborhood as one tenth the green space. So we immediately started thinking about how we could take this site and turn it into something that could be used for the public, but also could potentially even be green. Our plan, in a nutshell, is to draw natural sunlight underground using a simple system that harvests sunlight above the street, directs it below the city sidewalks, and would allow plants and trees to grow with the light that's directed underneath. With this approach, you could take a site that looks like this today and transform it into something that looks like this.
目前這個地方位在 下東城的心臟地帶。 現今仍是紐約市 其中一個最擁擠的區域。 紐約市跟其他大型城市一樣, 每位居民擁有 2/3 的綠地, 可是這個區域的人只有 1/10 的綠地。 所以我們馬上就開始想 要怎麼將這個地方轉變成 大眾可以使用的地方, 而且這地方還有綠化的可能性。 簡單來說,我們的計劃 是要將自然的日光引入地底。 運用一個簡單的系統 將街上的陽光儲存起來, 再將儲存的陽光 導入城市地底下的人行道, 讓植物和樹木 透過導入地底的陽光得以成長茁壯。 用這種方式, 我們可以把今天看起來像這樣的地方, 轉變成看起來像是 這樣的地方。
In 2011, we first released some of these images, and what was funny was, a lot of people said to us, "Oh, it kind of looks like the High Line underground." And so what our nickname ended up becoming, and what ended up sticking, was the Lowline, so the Lowline was born. What was also clear was that people really wanted to know a lot more about how the technology would look and feel, and that there was really much more interest in this than we had ever thought possible. So, like a crazy person, I decided to quit my job and focus entirely on this project. Here is us with our team putting together a technology demonstration in a warehouse. Here's the underbelly of this solar canopy which we built to show the technology. You can see the six solar collectors at the center there. And here's the full exhibit all put together in this warehouse. You can see the solar canopy overhead, the light streaming in, and this entirely live green space below. So in the course of just a few weeks, tens of thousands of people came to see our exhibit, and since that time, we've grown our numbers of supporters both locally and among design enthusiasts all over the world.
2011 年,我們先發布一些圖片。 有趣的是, 很多人跟我們說,這看起來 很像地下版的「高線公園」(High Line)。 所以我們公園的綽號最後 就叫做低線 (Lowline) 公園。 並沿用至今,低線公園就誕生了。 我們也清楚地知道,大家真的很想 知道這個科技看起來 跟摸起來的感受。 而這所引來的注目 超越我們的預期。 所以我就像個瘋子, 決定辭掉工作, 全心全意專注在這個計劃上。 我和我的組員 在倉庫裡安排了 一個技術展示會。 這是太陽能遮棚的下方。 我們在這展示新的技術。 你們可以看到中間有六個太陽能收集器。 這是完全組裝完後在倉庫 所做的展示。 你們可以看到上方是太陽能遮棚, 陽光緩緩流入, 地底下就是生意盎然的綠地。 這個展示才幾個禮拜而已, 就有數萬人參觀我們的展示會。 從那時開始, 我們的支持人數向上攀升, 有本地的支持者 和來自各地的設計同好。
Here's a rendering of the neighborhood just immediately above the Line's site, and a rendering of how it will look after major redevelopment that is coming over the course of the next 10 years. Notice how crowded the neighborhood still feels and how there's really a lack of green space. So what we're proposing is really something that will add one football field of green space underneath this neighborhood, but more importantly will introduce a really community-driven focus in a rapidly gentrifying area. And right now, we're focusing very closely on how we engage with the City of New York on really transforming the overall ecosystem in an integrated way.
這圖片展示著低線公園 正上方的區域。 這張圖片也展示著 在未來十年的過程中, 將會有大型的重新發展計畫。 注意到這個街區是如此擁擠, 並且極度缺乏綠地。 所以我們的訴求只是 增加一個足球場大小的綠地, 就建在這個區域的正下方。 更重要的是,將會在這都更過的地區 推行以社區為導向的目標。 目前,我們緊密地專注在 如何跟紐約市一同合作, 真正地把整個生態系統 轉變地更加完善。
Here's our rendering of how we would actually invite people into the space itself. So here you see this iconic entrance in which we would literally peel up the street and reveal the historical layers of the city, and invite people into this warm underground space. In the middle of winter, when it's absolutely freezing outside, the last place you'd want to go would be an outdoor space or outdoor park. The Lowline would really be a four-season space and a respite for the city. So I like to think that the Lowline actually brings my own family's story full circle. If my grandparents and my parents were really focused on building the city up and out, I think my generation is focused on reclaiming the spaces that we already have, rediscovering our shared history, and reimagining how we can make our communities more interesting, more beautiful and more just.
在此呈現的是我們如何 吸引大家到這個空間。 你們可以看到這代表性的入口, 看起來像是我們把街道給了剝起來, 並展現出這個城市充滿歷史的一面, 也吸引大家進入這溫暖的地底空間。 在外面真的冷到不行的隆冬時, 你最不想去的地方就是 戶外的空間或公園了。 低線公園就會是四季合宜的空間, 讓城市得以喘息的地方。 我覺得低線公園真的 讓我家族的故事更加完整。 如果我的祖父母和我父母 把目標在建立並擴大這個城市。 我想我們世代的目標就是 重新再利用我們已經擁有的土地, 再次找回我們一同擁有的歷史, 並且再次想像如何讓我們的社區 成為更有趣、更美好、更公平的地方。
Thanks.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)