On Chambers St., New Solutions to the Enduring Ugliness of Sidewalk Sheds
A prototype of the Baseline Shed by Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) is installed at 280 Broadway. Its polycarbonate decking is designed to allow in natural light while also protectng pedestrans from the potential of falling construction materials. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
If at first you don’t succeed at coming up with a suitable replacement for New York City’s ubiquitous and unsightly sidewalk sheds, then try again, and again, and again.
That’s the idea behind the two prototypes now on view at 280 Chambers Street, near the corner of Broadway.
Since 2010, the city has considered, and failed to adopt, a series of new shed designs, each meant to introduce aesthetic relief from the current eyesores—wooden planks supported by metal beams that partially box in sidewalks and pedestrians.
These latest prototypes, by Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), include the angled Baseline Shed with transparent, polycarbonate decking that lets in natural light, and the Speed Shed, with an angled, translucent netted covering and detachable wheels for transport from one site to another.
The designs, owned by the city, are free to be copied, should a contractor choose to use one. In a statement, the Mayor’s Office said that by the end of the year the Department of Buildings (DOB) expects to finalize its rules for making the new designs available throughout the city.
In 2024, under the Adams administration, the city selected PAU and another architecture and design firm, Arup, to create sidewalk shed designs. All together they came up with six. In June, two by Arup went on display outside 280 Broadway, home of the DOB.
Going back to 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced the Urban Umbrella, winner of a design competition. (Its roof resembled translucent umbrellas.) A prototype of the structure went up outside 100 Broadway. It was said to fail because of its cost, compared to the conventional shed.
In 2015 came Side+Ways+Shed, Scaffoldwing, G-Shed and Urban/Arbor, winners of a 2015 competition by the New York Building Congress.
“I applaud the New York Building Congress and the New York Building Foundation for sponsoring this effort to beautify our City by having construction professionals design new and innovative sheds that meet or exceed shed safety requirements outlined in the NYC Construction Codes,” the then DOB commissioner, Rick Chandler, said in a statement.
Yet the city did not adopt any of them.
.png "The Urban Umbrella won a design competition in 2010, Its prototype was installed at 100 Broadway. Photo: Agencie")
Contractors have reportedly stuck with the current sheds, in part because they are relatively cheap, have established suppliers, and lack incentives to switch to structures that may be more expensive yet are temporary. It is unclear how any new design can overcome those obstacles.
Whether or not the designs on view at 280 Broadway do catch on, the Mamdani administration says it is making progress in reducing the number of sheds over city sidewalks, a decrease of 15% since January.
Two Local Laws passed last year allow the DOB to require more frequent permit renewals and stiffer penalties for sheds that stay up beyond the time they are needed. Many of those sheds were erected to comply with the city’s Local Law 11, which requires periodic facade repair and maintenance.
“In the greatest city in the world, New Yorkers shouldn’t have to accept dark, obstructed sidewalks as a fact of life,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “We’re taking down sheds that don’t need to be there and building a better alternative for the ones that do.”