Sidewalk sheds are required whenever renovation or new construction takes place on a building, or a Department of Buildings inspector suspects an unsafe condition exists. These sidewalks sheds are erected in order to protect pedestrians and typically remain in place for nearly a year, sometimes even longer. Currently there are more than 6,000 sidewalk sheds standing in New York City, spanning more than a million linear feet. 

The Department of Buildings and AIA New York Chapter have teamed up with an array of other civic organizations to organize an international design competition called UrbanShed that seeks a brighter future for this unique New York City structure. Contestants had been asked to design a sidewalk shed that is sustainable, economical and attractive.  Continue Reading>>

As is often the case, Jane Jacobs said it best: “Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs… If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.”  Citing Jacobs in a recent decision which affirmed the constitutionality of New York City’s billboards and signage regulations, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York rightfully recognized the City’s substantial interests in protecting neighborhood aesthetics and promoting traffic safety. For 115 years the Municipal Art Society of New York has been fighting to improve New York City’s streets; this decision, coupled with the City’s renewed promise to enforce its signage restrictions, is a significant victory in that fight.

The problems of outdoor advertising are not, of course, a recent phenomenon; when the New York Times noted that one of Manhattan’s most celebrated retail districts had become a “frightful spectacle” characterized by a “wilderness of discordant and shrieking signs” it was not merely recalling the ills of non-compliant signage, but forecasting them, in 1902.  Continue Reading>>

MAS has been involved with signage regulations since the turn of the 20th century, when the New York Times noted that one of the City’s famed retail districts had become a “frightful spectacle, made so more by the wilderness of discordant and shrieking signs.”  MAS even introduced a revision of the building code in 1908 that would regulate billboards for the first time. The problem of signage pollution continues to impact New York’s streetscapes, but recent litigation has affirmed the City’s right to regulate outdoor advertising in favor of traffic safety and aesthetics.

The Southern District of New York held today that New York City may enforce its arterial highway advertising ban, regulate the registration and permitting of existing outdoor arterial signs, and restrict the locations of internally illuminated signs throughout the City.

A number of New York City’s signage regulations were challenged by Plaintiffs Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc., Atlantic Outdoor Advertising, Inc., Scenic Outdoor, Inc., Troystar City Outdoor, Inc., Willow Media, LLC (together, the “Clear Channel Plaintiffs”) and Metro Fuel, LLC. Continue Reading>>

The New York City Council will hold a public hearing next Monday, January 26, at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall on Intro. 623 which proposes to allow advertising on sidewalk construction sheds for a yet to be determined permit fee. The Municipal Art Society will testify against this ill-conceived plan. [Read MAS press release here.] Download our testimony, here.

Outdoor advertising and sidewalk construction sheds blight our city’s streetscape. The City wisely seeks to regulate outdoor advertising with strict zoning regulations and imposes design guidelines for sidewalk construction sheds, but the City Council now wants to combine these two eyesores with a permit that would allow outdoor advertising companies to advertise on sidewalk sheds in manufacturing and commercial zoning districts. Read coverage of this issue in Metro NY, January 27, 2009. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society hosted its third Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course of the fall earlier today. Commercial Uses of Parkland: The Law Governing New York’s Open Spaces, was moderated by Michael Gruen, Esq. and co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Section and Historic Preservation and Parks Committee of the New York State Bar Association, focused on issues surrounding the use and alienation of parks in New York City and State. Panelists highlighted the significant case law, doctrine, and policy concerns that shape and determine New York parks and commercial uses within them.

MAS is delighted to announce that its final CLE program of the year – Clean Vehicles in New York: The Past & Future of Alternative Fuels for City Fleets - will be held next Thursday, December 11.  To learn more about this exciting course focused on a current issue, click here, and to register, click here.

The New York Times reported Sunday that the City of New York granted the Yankees rights to three billboards along the adjacent expressway in return for an exclusive luxury box at the new stadium.  The hubbub following the release of a series of email messages between Bloomberg aides focuses on the loss of advertising revenue to the city, however the recent signage regulations passed by the Department of Buildings ban all signage along arterial highways. To learn more about MAS’ advocacy on illegal outdoor advertising, click here.

In other news, the interior renovation of Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on the Upper West Side is nearly complete the full interior of the cathedral is now open and free of scaffolding after a fire damaged much of the artwork and pipe organ in 2001. Continue Reading>>

Both Moscow and Los Angeles are tackling serious billboard problems. In Los Angeles bright LED screens shine across neighborhoods, intruding into homes and distracting drivers. In Moscow, the historic areas around the Kremlin are marred by endless billboards. Both these cities are taking aggressive action to remove and slow the encroachment of these ads. One unique approach in Moscow is the city’s strategy of phasing in the restrictions and compensating the ad-industry for losses on unexpired contracts with their billboard clients. Ad companies will be compensated for each surface that is removed.

Here in New York City, when the Buildings Department finally issued rules for city for billboards in 2006 to a new law regulating outdoor advertising passed in 2001, the city was promptly sued by an outdoor advertising company and the city has failed to enforce regulations while the lawsuit is pending. Once the lawsuit has been resolved, we hope the city will start using the effective regulations that are in place to curb an industry that is rapidly overrunning our city.

MAS Director of Special projects Vanessa Gruen, commented in an article last week on an illegal billboard advertisement for Chanel’s Mobile Art Pavilion designed by architect Zaha Hadid.  Today, New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff comments on the Pavilion itself, which as essentially a corporate advertisement, he states, has no more place in a public park than on the public street.

In other news, the MTA is now considering puting digital advertisments on the sides of buses, says the New York Post. Advertisements can then change during the bus’ route to target specific communities, their primary languages, and consumer preferences.  MTA will test the ads on the M23 bus line. Continue Reading>>

To advertise for its Mobile Art Pavilion, being constructed in Central Park this fall, Chanel has draped an illegal fifteen story billboard onto its 57th street facade; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS commented on the ad in the New York Times blog.

In other news, the New York City Economic Development Corporation has purchased three more parcels of land in Willets Point nearly doubling their land acquisition to date but leaving the City far from owning the entire site (Crain’s New York Business).

The new TKTS Booth in the center of Times Square has opened and can remain so throughout the winter (New York Times). Continue Reading>>

amNew York reports today that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is considering putting advertising on New York City buildings and vehicles, such as garbage trucks, to add up to $10 million to the City’s budget in these meager times; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS comments stating that eventually, the City will hit a saturation point with outdoor advertising.

The Gowanus Lounge reports that the City’s Economic Development Corporation has purchased park of the Deno’s Wonderwheel site in Coney Island – a parcel that would be part of the amusement park in the proposed rezoning (see also New York Post).