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New York City’s great green maze—the hulking sidewalk sheds that have shaded blocks for decades—just got a glow-up. On Tuesday, mayor Eric Adams and Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo pulled back the plywood curtain on six redesigned sidewalk sheds meant to brighten streets, reduce clutter and actually let the sun hit your face again.
The new designs were created by Arup and Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) and are part of the administration’s ongoing “Get Sheds Down” push, which has already resulted in more than 15,000 old sheds being removed citywide. These fresh concepts aim to fix the other half of the equation: the sheds that actually do need to stick around.
Each comes with its own personality:
PAU’s Speed Shed is a lightweight, quick-deploy option with an angled, netted roof that lets sunlight actually reach the sidewalk.
Arup’s Rigid Shed shrinks its footprint so major construction projects no longer swallow entire blocks.
PAU’s Baseline Shed comes in light- and heavy-duty versions, with a transparent roof that brightens even the gloomiest stretches.
Arup’s Air Shed lifts completely off the ground and anchors into the building, leaving pedestrians with nothing but open space beneath.
PAU’s Wide Baseline Shed spaces out its heavy-duty columns to keep wide sidewalks feeling, well, wide.
Arup’s Flex Shed adjusts its roof height and column placement to dance around street signs, bus shelters and whatever else New York throws its way.
Behind the aesthetics is a broader attempt to rethink how the city handles façade safety. Alongside the new designs, the first-ever scientific review of Local Law 11 is underway, conducted by Thornton Tomasetti. The study suggests the city can safely reduce its reliance on sheds by adjusting inspection timelines, tightening definitions of what’s actually dangerous and exploring tools like drones to assess facades. The overall goal is fewer sheds and more precise use of them when genuinely needed.
This all leads to a stricter enforcement era coming in 2026. Property owners will face new penalties of up to $6,000 a month for sheds that linger for over 180 days. Shed permits will also shrink from a year to just 90 days, forcing more frequent proof that repair work is actually happening. Long-standing sheds (three years or more) will land owners in an expanded enforcement program that includes the possibility of court action.
If all goes according to plan, the first of these new designs could hit the streets as early as next year. And for a city long resigned to ducking under dim green tunnels, the prospect of lighter, cleaner and better-looking sheds feels like a rare kind of urban miracle.