New York City’s proposed sidewalk sheds are drawing online mockery over their sharply angled roofs, but a design expert says the more serious question is who will pay to replace the city’s familiar plywood structures.
The redesign introduced during the Adams administration could function as intended, said David Burney, a Pratt Institute associate professor and former city construction commissioner. But he doubts property owners and contractors will choose the more polished designs as long as inexpensive green plywood sheds remain available.
“They’re a huge improvement of the crap that we put up now, but who’s going to pay for it?” Burney said. “Unless they make it mandatory, it’s hard to see who’s going to pay for it.”
Unveiled last November under former Mayor Eric Adams, the new concepts were presented as alternatives to the city’s ubiquitous hunter-green pipe-and-plywood sidewalk sheds.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has since placed two prototype structures outside the Department of Buildings headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
Architecture firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism created both prototypes.
One features a sharply angled, transparent polycarbonate roof designed to bring more daylight to the sidewalk below.
The second relies on rockfall netting to contain falling debris while allowing sunlight to pass through.
The unconventional rooflines quickly prompted critics to wonder how rainwater would drain.
“Wait a second…did that stupid communist pitch the roofs to drain INTO the buildings??” reality star and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt posted.
“They want everything slanted to the far left,” former City Councilman Justin Brannan joked.
Burney dismissed the concerns about drainage.
“They can easily handle the draining. I don’t think it’s a problem.”
He was more skeptical of the netting design, which would leave pedestrians with less shelter from rain and direct sunlight.
“One benefit you do get is when it’s raining or really sunny you can walk under the shed and get some protection,” Burney said. “So if they take that away that will be one more reason to hate sidewalk sheds.”
For Burney, however, the primary issue remains the price of the proposed upgrades.
Contractor Prime Scaffold estimates that standard plywood sidewalk sheds cost roughly $125 to $180 per linear foot.
A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings declined to provide a projected price for the new models, saying only that they were designed around affordable, readily available materials and could be reused.
The spokesperson nevertheless acknowledged that the redesigned sheds would require a larger upfront investment than conventional versions.
Burney said a previous attempt to improve the appearance of sidewalk sheds failed because building owners were not required to select the more expensive option. He expects the latest designs could face the same obstacle unless their use becomes mandatory.
“The owners don’t want to pay for it,” Burney said. “The contractors don’t want to pay for it.”
