The park would offer city residents a place of refuge and host art exhibits, music performances, readings and children's activities. "We'd already been playing with new solar technology," Barasch said, noting that Ramsey's RAAD design studio firm worked on the solar concept for the terminal. [...] we fell more and more in love with the idea of this public space, so we put those two concepts together. [...] he says the Lowline team of three, plus hundreds of volunteers, must tackle some technical challenges: exactly how to channel the natural sunlight from the collectors to the park below, using the latest optics. The 22-block aerial walkway on an abandoned freight route has galvanized a neighborhood where luxury condos, galleries and boutiques have all but pushed out the industrial grime of warehouses and manufacturing plants. The High Line has inspired proposals for other such New York parks, including one set on unused Long Island Rail Road tracks in Queens and another on an abandoned portion of Amtrak rails in Harlem. Kerri Culhane, associate director of Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, calls the project a "Trojan Horse" that will draw real estate investors while alienating longtime residents.