Construction Starts on Art Project to Bring ‘Rain’ to NoMa Underpass

A NoMa underpass’s transformation from a dark, shadowy place to a light-filled art park has begun.

Construction crews on Monday started work that will give the neighborhood’s M Street NE passageway under the train tracks “countless points of light raining down from its ceiling,” according to the NoMa Parks Foundation.

The installation, known as “Rain,” will get its shower effect from light-emitting diode (LED) lights inside hundreds of polycarbonate tubes.

“The interior of the M Street underpass will look like a gentle rain with subtle moving lights — and its dark ceiling will turn into a glowing field of light that moves and flows as people move through the space,” the parks foundation says on its website.

Thurlow Small Architecture and NIO architects unveiled their plans for the project in April 2015. But it wasn’t immediately clear when “Rain” will make its debut.

A representative of the parks foundation wasn’t immediately available to comment.

During construction, M Street will remain open to car traffic between 1st and 2nd streets NE. But pedestrians will have access to only one sidewalk there.

The M Street underpass is the first such passageway in NoMa to receive an art installation. The parks foundation is planning to bring art to the underpasses at K and L streets NE, as well as Florida Avenue NE, in the future.

Image via NoMa Business Improvement District