Seen & Heard: No escape from the sidewalk sheds

WHEN ONE DOOR OPENS…
Just when I was celebrating seeing the sky and the view again on the southwest corner of West Broadway and Chambers, they are putting a new sidewalk shed up on the northwest corner for One Hudson, I assume thanks to Local Law 11. Of course none of us wants to be hit by a loose brick, but it sure would be nice to think this won’t be up for the next 10 years. I tried to check out the façade report on the DOB portal, but there does not seem to be an unsafe report. The last report on file is 2015. There is a class 1 violation (safety issues) but I couldn’t find the actual report in there…

STORYDANCE FOR THE LITTLEST ONES
Downtown Dance Factory is offering a free class for children between 1 and 4 (and their caregivers) called StoryDance on Monday, Feb. 13, at 10a. The class dance, story time, games and activities. Email here to reserve a spot.

MARKING 30 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST WTC BOMBING
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum will host a discussion titled “30 Years Later: The 1993 Bombing and Operation Tradebom” on Monday, February 27, 6p. Marc Smerling, the creator of the new Apple podcast “Operation: Tradebom,” is joined by former FBI Agents John Anticev and Frank Pellegrino, and former NYPD officer Cory Cuneo in conversation with museum director Clifford Chanin. On February 26, 1993, terrorists detonated a van loaded with explosives in the parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people, including a pregnant woman, and injuring thousands. At the time, this was the largest improvised explosive device ever ignited on American soil. Register here or watch live here.

COMING THIS SUMMER TO CITY HALL PARK
This is a preview, but still exciting. (Though I still love seeing Wyatt Kahn’s work in the park, those leave this month.) Starting June 7, British artist Phyllida Barlow will bring PRANK, a series of seven new steel and fiberglass sculptures, to City Hall Park. Barlow typically uses inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, and cement to make anti-monumental sculptures. A revisitation of the artist’s 1990s Object For series, a body of work developed in Barlow’s home which combined disparate elements to create surprising new synergies, PRANK marks Barlow’s first significant body of outdoor sculpture composed of robust, long-lasting materials.

 

10 Comments

  1. Yeah, I noticed three sky walks going up on the same day in the neighborhood.. Thought it was odd, but to your point, I know at least one if going up because of Local Law 11 (at my building). – Sigh, I guess that’s what comes with living in a major (and old) city..

  2. These sheds are not a result of living in an old city. Paris is much older and in many places denser than New York. And while there are plenty of buildings shrouded by scaffolds in that city, one also sees WORK happening at each and every scaffold location without exception. Not so here by a long shot. One at Broadway and Leonard has been there for 23 years. But of course the DOB site lies and says it’s far less than that. Why? Because the scaffold now replaces the one previous (with ZERO work done to facade) because that one rusted and rotted to the point of needing to be replaced! The number of the sheds in Paris and other cities is kept to a reasonable number and the city isn’t mocked by visitors and locals alike for defacing its best streets and buildings with green monsters.

  3. Phyllida Barlow at City Hall Park! Excellent.

  4. Regarding scaffolding. Yes the one at 401 Broadway has been on and off for years and no work in sight until 2022. It created shelter for fake bag sellers, toilets for dogs and human, clogging the sidewalk… The one at 47 Walker has been there for at least a decade and no work going on.
    Regarding sheds, Covid rules might be lifted, illegal dining sheds are not going anywhere, pretty soon they would be ‘grandfathered in’. Belle Rêve, Anejo, Antique Garage, Macau on Church are all big time transgressors, Belle Rêve cleverly built the extension on the sidewalk that looks like it’s part of the building, they have a shed on the street as well. Which city agency is accountable for all this again?

    • re :abandoned sheds are covered by DOT.
      here is the process as i understand it .
      first step is file a complaint with 311( complaints from multiple people are helpful or even multiple complaints by the same person. better)
      it takes at least 3months for the DOT to process the paper work for the owner to remove the shed or bring it to current code.
      If the shed is deemed truly abandoned(e.g. restaurant out of biz) then eventually the DOT comes with a huge crew( carpenter, electricians, etc.) to remove the shed and then the DOT has to store the remains for a certain length of time – i think bc it is deemed private property.
      it took 6 months + to have an abandoned shed, aka the” rat motel “removed at 181 Duane

  5. the oldest Scaffolding Tribeca. Where Clementine suppose to be opening past two years. Greenwich and Duane. Eyesore! What a shame.

  6. Just discovered this NYC sidewalk shed permit map:

    https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/html/sidewalk-shed-map.html

    Apparently it’s only for construction sheds, not the dining sheds.

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