They’re called sidewalk sheds. Many have been up for longer than a decade.
On East 9th Street in Manhattan, New York, an ugly green structure stands over the sidewalk.
Known as a sidewalk shed, it was built to protect passersby from possible falling debris. It received a construction permit in September 2010 — back when Michael Bloomberg was the city’s mayor, and Apple had just released the iPhone 4.
Since then, New York has elected two more mayors, and Apple has come out with more than a dozen new iPhones. Countless people have moved in and out of apartments in the neighborhood. Restaurants have opened and shuttered.
But as of this month the sidewalk shed was still permitted to be there on East 9th Street.
The East 9th Street sidewalk shed, originally permitted in 2010. (Google Maps)
In New York City, sidewalk sheds — similar to scaffolding — are as much a part of the cityscape as hot dog vendors and street musicians.
As of early March, America’s most populous city had 8,560 sheds covering its sidewalks, a total of ~2m linear feet or 378 linear miles, roughly the distance from New York City to Montreal.
The sheds are up to protect pedestrians from falling objects from active construction zones or damaged building facades. But they’re annoying and ugly. A city code even requires that they all use the same hunter green color.
The average shed stays up for about 1.5 years, but hundreds have stood for much longer, as building owners with facade issues delay maintenance.
New York City can’t get rid of these long-term sheds for an economic reason: Sidewalk sheds are often a bargain compared to repairing a property.
The origins and economics of the sidewalk shed industry
In 1979, a piece of concrete fell from a seventh floor window on West 115th Street and struck Barnard College freshman Grace Gold, who died minutes later.
The New York Times reported at the time that it was rare for falling debris to be fatal in New York, and a police officer described the likelihood as “a 10 million to one possibility — no more than that.” But the incident was enough to propel the city into action, passing a law in 1980 that has since been modified into the Facade Inspection & Safety Program.
The law requires all city buildings taller than six stories to undergo a facade inspection at least once every five years. If after an inspection a building is determined to be hazardous to pedestrians passing below — such as if its facade is deteriorating — the owner must protect the sidewalk, in a manner approved by the city, until the problem is fixed.
A partial facade collapse investigated by the Department of Buildings in February. (Department of Buildings)
Building owners can protect the sidewalks with facade containment netting, but the netting often doesn’t offer adequate protection, says Stephen Varone, president of Manhattan’s Rand Engineering & Architecture, who has helped buildings comply with inspection codes. So, sidewalk sheds have been the standard in New York and, according to the city, are the “code-prescribed” option.
Since 1980, inspection laws and methods of inspection have gotten more stringent, resulting in building owners and the city’s Department of Buildings discovering more facade issues.
“When you find those things they have to be repaired,” Varone says. “It’s a good thing.”
Unfortunately, the upshot of finding more hazards that need to be fixed is more ugly sidewalk sheds that bother residents and tourists.
Before 1980, the sidewalk shed industry barely existed. By 2000, the city had 2.8k sheds. Now there are over 8k — roughly one-third for buildings that need facade repairs and two-thirds for buildings under construction.
The Hustle
Most building owners try to complete repairs as quickly as possible, Varone says. But variables like obtaining permits, getting approval from a building’s stakeholders, bad weather, and waiting on reviews from the city can elongate the process even for someone who wants to get the job done.
The bigger problem for New York City are the outliers, the negligent or absentee building owners who prefer to pay for sheds for an indefinite period of time rather than pay for repairs. About 1.9k sheds have stood for at least two years, and more than 300 have stood for at least five years.
Many of these owners find the economic calculus of a sidewalk shed appealing:
- The cost to purchase, maintain, and install a sidewalk shed depends on the size of a building and other factors but can cost ~$150 per linear foot, for a total that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
- Most of that cost involves construction and demolition, but shed companies typically also charge rental fees after a shed has been up for three months.
- On top of that, a city permit for the sheds typically costs a few hundred dollars, depending on its size, and yearly renewals cost $130, according to the Department of Buildings.
That isn’t cheap. But compare those prices to repairing a facade: Depending on the size of the building and extent of the damage, total repairs could total into the six figures and even up to $1m, according to estimates described by architects and news sources about co-ops. Painting alone costs thousands of dollars.
The city can levy fines of $1k per month on buildings that are deemed unsafe and don’t complete repairs, but the fines are often not enough to make owners act, especially if they intend to sell or file for bankruptcy.
When they don’t fix their buildings, it has a wide-reaching economic effect. A study last year from the city and Mastercard revealed that weekly revenues at bars and restaurants surrounded by a sidewalk shed fell between 3.5%-9.7%.
“Sidewalk sheds and scaffolding are meant to keep New Yorkers safe, but too often sheds are left in place longer than they need to be, creating quality of life, public safety, and economic concerns,” said New York City Councilmember Carlina Rivera in a press release announcing sharing the study’s results.
The Hustle
But can New York really reduce its number of sheds, given its stock of old buildings?
The plan to ‘get sheds down’
Over the last couple years, city leaders and the city’s Department of Buildings have pushed a “Get Sheds Down” initiative with a goal of taking down longstanding sidewalk sheds and improving shed design.
- The city has removed some 325 sheds that were up for at least five years since July 2023 and filed litigation against more than 100 properties to compel them to start doing repairs.
- Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Buildings have also proposed reducing the permit length of sidewalk sheds from one year to 90 days and assessing fines of up to $6k per month for failing to make progress on repairs after 90 days.
- State bills would offer abatements to building owners for quick repairs and give tenants the right to sue building owners who fail to complete repairs.
Others have suggested New York City’s inspection laws are too strict compared to other large cities and would like to see them modified. New York also has a state law known as the Scaffold Law that’s been on the books since the 19th century and assigns broad liability to owners and contractors if construction workers are injured. Critics claim the law drives up insurance costs, leading to higher prices for repairs and construction — which can lead to delays and sidewalk sheds standing for longer.
But no legal revisions will change an important reality of New York City: It has more than 1.1m buildings, according to the Department of Buildings. Many have stood for more than 150 years and are made from materials, such as terra cotta, the most dangerous for falling debris, that weren’t meant to last forever.
That’s one reason why Varone and some city officials see better sheds — with brighter colors, less steel, and art work — as the best solution for the city’s scaffolding problem.
The Urban Umbrella sidewalk shed. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
In 2011, the city approved a nontraditional shed known as the Urban Umbrella, which won a design competition. But it’s the only alternative to the ugly hunter green sidewalk shed.
That should change by the end of the year. The Department of Buildings says it has worked with firms to come up with six new shed designs scheduled to be released in 2025.
“I think [that] will go a long way toward alleviating how annoying they seem to be,” Varone says.
But, he adds, it’s still New York City, “a neverending construction site.” Sheds will always be a part of city life.
