Called “Urban Umbrella,” this new vision for sidewalk sheds just won the city’s international design competition and will arrive at one Lower Manhattan building this summer, courtesy of the Downtown Alliance. Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old University of Pennsylvania student, designed the shed to allow more air and light to reach the building’s storefronts. Once the first prototype is installed Downtown, the city hopes other landlords will follow suit and use the new shed rather than the typical plywood one, but the new version will be more expensive.
