Page Updated January 24, 2012
News of underground buildings that are being contemplated or constructed are added to this page as information becomes available.
If you are aware of new examples that are being considered, designed, or built, please let us know.
News of underground buildings that are being contemplated or constructed are added to this page as information becomes available.
If you are aware of new examples that are being considered, designed, or built, please let us know.
Unless otherwise attributed, all SubsurfaceBuildings.com content is © Loretta Hall, 2000-2012.
Proposed
The Delancey Underground park is proposed for an abandoned trolley tunnel near the base of New York City's Williamsburg Bridge.
On June 30, 2011, Robert Arms, CEO of Earthlog Equity Group announced plans to form a joint venture with interested parties to build a group of earth-sheltered homes on a 140 acres in the Smoky Mountains. The homes will be available for nightly rental.
In October 2010, Richard Koshalek, director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Gallery, suggested expanding the below-grade sculpture garden and roofing it over to create a new exhibit area. The sculpture garden would be relocated to the roof of the new, underground exhibit hall.
Architect Matthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has designed an inverted skyscraper that could reclaim a 900-foot-deep, 300-foot-wide open pit mine in Arizona. The self-sustaining structure would be covered with a shallow dome, and a light-rail system would link it to the nearby city of Bisbee.
Planned
NEW Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, will soon get a new underground amenity. To complete an 84-mile reclamation of Farmington Canal Railroad line, a three-segment tunnel will be constructed beneath the campus. One section will be a subterranean park accessible from street level by a ramp, while another will widen to create a space for community events. Construction is expected to begin in late 2012, with completion in 2014.
Apple's new headquarters complex in Cupertino, California, will include a 1,000-seat auditorium hidden under a lawn.
New York University's 2031 expansion plans include a large underground facility between two new aboveground buildings.
Improvements to the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, will include expanding the underground museum by 50 percent and creating a new, more inviting entrance. Funding must be found before construction can begin.
At least six underground cottages are planned to accomodate visitors and scholars near Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. They will be immersed in a meadow above the Frank Lloyd Wright classic.
The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground won the competition for reusing the vacant, underground trolley station at Dupont Circle in Washington DC. Their plans include housing art galleries, restaurants, and a winery in the twin tunnels of the former transit facility.
Forks Township in Easton, Pennsylvania, plans to build an earth-covered municipal public works building. For visual and environmental reasons, the roof and three sides of the building will be covered with soil and vegetation.
Under Construction
NEW Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, CA, broke ground on October 1, 2011, on its new Teaching and Learning Center. With three floors aboveground, the building also includes a below-grade level with some rooms underneath a courtyard. Completion is expected by the beginning of the 2013-2014 academic year.
The underground museum at Franklin Court in Philadelphia closed on May 31, 2011, for a renovation project expected to take two years. The museum is located beneath a courtyard where Benjamin Franklin's house stood while he served in the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is building a new Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. The building is partly recessed into a steep, erosion-prone slope.
Reconstruction of the Cleveland [Ohio] underground convention center began in November 2010. Project completion is expected in 2013.
Construction began in November 2010 on the first phase of an underground addition, designed by Frank Ghery, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Groundbreaking took place October 14, 2010, for the National Law Enforcement Museum under Judiciary Square in Washington, DC. The three-story building, which should be completed in mid-2013, will have two aboveground, glass entrance pavilions.
Construction began in October 2010 on an addition to Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. Much of the new structure will be below ground level or recessed into a slope. A 2013 completion is expected.
The 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York will open in 2012. Located 70 feet below ground, underneath an 8-acre memorial plaza, the museum will display relics from the destroyed buildings.
Groundbreaking took place in October 2009 on an addition to the San Francisco General Hospital campus. A substantial part of the space in the new building will be in a basement level that will extend outward beyond the footprint of the new, 90-foot-tall building. This plan satisfies zoning restrictions on height as well as seismic code restrictions on the space between the new structure and neighboring buildings. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015.
Recently Completed
NEW The glass cube above the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue was replaced in November 2011 with a simplified and more transparent version.
NEW A two-story underground addition to the Law Library at the University of California Berkeley opened in the fall of 2011.
A mostly underground expansion of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art opened October 15, 2011, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. The expansion was included in I.M. Pei's original design of the building.
The Delancey Underground park is proposed for an abandoned trolley tunnel near the base of New York City's Williamsburg Bridge.
On June 30, 2011, Robert Arms, CEO of Earthlog Equity Group announced plans to form a joint venture with interested parties to build a group of earth-sheltered homes on a 140 acres in the Smoky Mountains. The homes will be available for nightly rental.
In October 2010, Richard Koshalek, director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Gallery, suggested expanding the below-grade sculpture garden and roofing it over to create a new exhibit area. The sculpture garden would be relocated to the roof of the new, underground exhibit hall.
Architect Matthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has designed an inverted skyscraper that could reclaim a 900-foot-deep, 300-foot-wide open pit mine in Arizona. The self-sustaining structure would be covered with a shallow dome, and a light-rail system would link it to the nearby city of Bisbee.
Planned
NEW Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, will soon get a new underground amenity. To complete an 84-mile reclamation of Farmington Canal Railroad line, a three-segment tunnel will be constructed beneath the campus. One section will be a subterranean park accessible from street level by a ramp, while another will widen to create a space for community events. Construction is expected to begin in late 2012, with completion in 2014.
Apple's new headquarters complex in Cupertino, California, will include a 1,000-seat auditorium hidden under a lawn.
New York University's 2031 expansion plans include a large underground facility between two new aboveground buildings.
Improvements to the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, will include expanding the underground museum by 50 percent and creating a new, more inviting entrance. Funding must be found before construction can begin.
At least six underground cottages are planned to accomodate visitors and scholars near Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. They will be immersed in a meadow above the Frank Lloyd Wright classic.
The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground won the competition for reusing the vacant, underground trolley station at Dupont Circle in Washington DC. Their plans include housing art galleries, restaurants, and a winery in the twin tunnels of the former transit facility.
Forks Township in Easton, Pennsylvania, plans to build an earth-covered municipal public works building. For visual and environmental reasons, the roof and three sides of the building will be covered with soil and vegetation.
Under Construction
NEW Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, CA, broke ground on October 1, 2011, on its new Teaching and Learning Center. With three floors aboveground, the building also includes a below-grade level with some rooms underneath a courtyard. Completion is expected by the beginning of the 2013-2014 academic year.
The underground museum at Franklin Court in Philadelphia closed on May 31, 2011, for a renovation project expected to take two years. The museum is located beneath a courtyard where Benjamin Franklin's house stood while he served in the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is building a new Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. The building is partly recessed into a steep, erosion-prone slope.
Reconstruction of the Cleveland [Ohio] underground convention center began in November 2010. Project completion is expected in 2013.
Construction began in November 2010 on the first phase of an underground addition, designed by Frank Ghery, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Groundbreaking took place October 14, 2010, for the National Law Enforcement Museum under Judiciary Square in Washington, DC. The three-story building, which should be completed in mid-2013, will have two aboveground, glass entrance pavilions.
Construction began in October 2010 on an addition to Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. Much of the new structure will be below ground level or recessed into a slope. A 2013 completion is expected.
The 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York will open in 2012. Located 70 feet below ground, underneath an 8-acre memorial plaza, the museum will display relics from the destroyed buildings.
Groundbreaking took place in October 2009 on an addition to the San Francisco General Hospital campus. A substantial part of the space in the new building will be in a basement level that will extend outward beyond the footprint of the new, 90-foot-tall building. This plan satisfies zoning restrictions on height as well as seismic code restrictions on the space between the new structure and neighboring buildings. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015.
Recently Completed
NEW The glass cube above the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue was replaced in November 2011 with a simplified and more transparent version.
NEW A two-story underground addition to the Law Library at the University of California Berkeley opened in the fall of 2011.
A mostly underground expansion of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art opened October 15, 2011, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. The expansion was included in I.M. Pei's original design of the building.
