{"id":44306,"date":"2025-11-19T00:46:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T00:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T00:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T00:46:13","slug":"new-york-city-sidewalk-shed-ideas-lean-on-light-and-air-and-curb-climbing-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44306\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City Sidewalk Shed Ideas Lean on Light and Air \u2014 and Curb Climbing \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism<\/a> (PAU) is literally angling for a new scaffolding design that lets in more light on the street below.<\/p>\n

PAU and design firm Arup<\/a> both independently released new designs for sidewalk sheds on Tuesday after being contracted by Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Department of Buildings to design a cost-effective and attractive alternative design for the protective sheds while not sacrificing safety for the pedestrians below.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Nonprofit Buys Bronx Parking Lot for $25M With Plans for New Housing<\/a><\/p>\n

The firms were chosen as part of the \u201cGet Sheds Down\u201d initiative by the Adams administration, but it\u2019s unclear where the program will go in the near future, with Adams\u2019s successor Zohran Mamdani set to be sworn in on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cPAU was established to design for the public,\u201d Vishaan Chakrabarti, PAU\u2019s founder, said in a statement. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a more impactful intervention than making Gotham\u2019s sidewalks \u2014 the most defining aspect of our city\u2019s public realm \u2014 safer, more egalitarian, and more beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cScaffolding sheds serve an important role in protecting pedestrians from overhead construction, but they shouldn\u2019t diminish the experience of walking through our city\u2019s streets,\u201d Seth Wolfe, principal at Arup, said in a statement. \u201cOur designs have fewer obstructions to overcome the tunnel-like feel of current sheds, bringing light and life back to New York City sidewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city selected PAU in April \u2014 which worked in partnership with LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, Tang Studio Architect, Langan, RWDI, Fisher Marantz Stone and Dharam \u2014 to produce three designs.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many building owners, instead of completing the inspections and repairs, let sheds languish above our streets, restaurants and apartments, crowding our sidewalks and darkening our streets,\u201d Adams said in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we put the see-through mesh in the screens on top, people were hiding on top of sheds to commit crimes,\u201d Adams continued. \u201cThey hide in the dark passageway and unscrew the light bulbs. The sheds have become a magnet for criminal behavior. That\u2019s why we knew this was a public safety issue as well as an economic issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sloping design by PAU eliminates the need for the standard green plywood parapets on most sidewalk sheds and lets in more light and airflow. It also discourages people from climbing.<\/p>\n

The sheds can also be deployed as standard flat parapets in cases where it is necessary, according to PAU.<\/p>\n

Arup\u2019s designs are more screen-like in that they are flat but perforated to let in more light.<\/p>\n

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) is literally angling for a new scaffolding design that lets in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[81,9,24,13792,55,54,56,1413,25476,9516,25477],"class_list":{"0":"post-44306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-eric-adams","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-department-of-buildings","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-policy","16":"tag-seth-wolfe","17":"tag-urban-planning","18":"tag-vishaan-chakrabarti-channel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}