At last week's annual AIANY's Heritage Ball at Chelsea Piers, the New York City Department of Buildings and AIANY announced three finalists in the urbanSHED International Design Competition. As you may recall, the competition, which is also being sponsored by the New York Building Congress, among others, seeks to create a new standard of sidewalk shed design that both improves the pedestrian experience and simultaneously incorporates sustainable design principles that comport with PlaNYC and New York City safety standards. The competition received 164 designs from across the world; the three finalists are: “urbanCLOUD" by New York City-based KNEStudio, "Urban Umbrella" by Young Hwan Choi of the University of Pennsylvania, and "Tripod" of Brookline, Massachusetts' XChange Architects.
The designs aim to increase the flow of natural light to the sidewalk underneath each shed; urbanCLOUD would hang from the roof of the building, while Urban Umbrella is slanted away from the street. Each finalist now receives $5000 to further develop the designs during Stage II of the competition; the winner will be announced sometime in mid-December, earn $10,000, and see its prototype erected on DOB's headquarters at the landmarked 280 Broadway as part of the Downtown Alliance's Re-Construction Art Program. The nine-person jury for the competition includes David Childs, Jean Oei of Morphosis, and Frank Sciame, among other notables, who will judge the finalists based on overall design excellence, constructability, safety, and sustainability, including how the designs incorporate green materials, minimize overall energy use, maximize daylight, and incorporate wastewater management principles. We're looking forward to seeing the winning design installed downtown- good luck to each of the finalists!
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