Archinect - News

New York City and its unloved sidewalk sheds

2020-01-02T15:00:00-05:00

Unloved and janky, scaffolding is New York City’s other architecture, its Tinker Toy exoskeleton. It has enraged and inspired its residents, while forever altering their behavior — there are those who cleave to its shelter during bad weather, or skittishly avoid it — as they continue to rail against its persistence and ubiquity, perhaps unaware of the history behind much of it.

Penelope Green on New York's much loathed yet ubiquitous sidewalk sheds — retelling the origins of the 1980 law that mandated them for buildings with decaying facades, how they could be vastly improved, when they've already been turned into destinations in themselves, and when lack of enforcement makes their mission tragically clear.

'Urban Umbrella' Graces New York With New Scaffolding

2011-12-09T13:34:46-05:00

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first model of "Urban Umbrella," a beautiful new design for the city's scaffolding structures, in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday. The design was the winner of the urbanSHED competition which sought to revamp the city's current scaffolding designed more than 60 years ago. Project Engineer Sarrah Khan, Architect Andres Cortes, and Designer Young Hwan Choi who all helped bring the structure to life were also present for Wednesday's unveiling.

Previously: 'Urban Umbrella' Wins urbanSHED Design Competition

'Urban Umbrella' Wins urbanSHED Design Competition

2010-01-21T14:46:34-05:00

An international competition - the "urbanSHED International Design Competition" - was held to challenge the design community to create a new standard of sidewalk shed. The competition winner, “Urban Umbrella,” was developed by Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old student from the University of Pennsylvania, with Andrés Cortés AIA and Sarrah Khan PE of Agencie Group. Bustler