Urban Umbrella

For decades, pedestrians in New York City have had to tolerate temporary sidewalk construction sheds. Typically assembled from unadorned metal and painted plywood, the flat-roofed sheds make sidewalks dim and grim, sometimes for months on end. But the sidewalks may be about to get some visual uplift. The city’s Department of Buildings and the American Institute of Architects’ New York Chapter recently announced the winner of the UrbanShed International Design Competition, which aims to inject aesthetic flair into the utilitarian realm of temporary enclosures. The winning design, “Urban Umbrella” by Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania, is a light and airy structure of tree-like steel supports holding up a roof of composite fiberglass panels. The panels “allow 30 percent light transmission,” says Andres Cortes of Agencie Group in New York. “It’s diffuse light, so there will be brighter sidewalks.” The Alliance for Downtown New York will pay to construct and install a full-scale Urban Umbrella prototype at a job site in Lower Manhattan. Because the design will obstruct less of a building’s façade and will be more inviting to pedestrians, officials think owners will be receptive, especially in upscale neighborhoods. The design will not be mandated, but Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri says he expects the new canopy to be seen across the city within three years. It’s been estimated that New York contains 6,000 sheds, covering a million square feet of sidewalk. “The Umbrella consists of a series of components which can all be mechanically fastened on site by what the construction industry terms ‘unskilled labor,’” Cortés points out. Choi collaborated on the design with Cortes and Sarrah Khan of Agencie Group. The design team also included Will Robinette, Todd Montgomery, and Zachary Colbert. The curving, branching steel supports are somewhat busy visually. This could make them inappropriate for some buildings. Nonetheless, the new design shows that there are better ways of protecting pedestrians than opaque plywood coverings.