When 'Temporary' Scaffolding Turns Permanent In NYC

NEW YORK CITY — Scaffolds are as prominent a part of New York City's urban landscape as the Empire State Building — and some have a similar sense of permanence.

Not all the city's current 8,900 scaffolds — or, in city parlance, "sidewalk sheds" — boast the longevity of a West Village building's two-decade-old, on-and-off scaffolding.

Most go up and come down in 261 days on average, according to the city's sidewalk shed permit tracker.

But others have been up for years — scattered across New York City there are roughly 500 sidewalk sheds that have been up more than a year, according to city data. And the true age of some sheds is hard to gauge because the city's tracker only counts back to the most recent permit.

Take the sidewalk shed in front of 409 Edgecombe Ave., a landmarked building in Harlem. The shed's fresh coat of forest green paint masks its true age: 15 years.

"People move here and they don’t even know what the building looks like," a resident, Mike Dorset, told Patch.

The Department of Buildings stepped up enforcement in 2019, bringing civil and criminal nuisance abatement cases against building owners. Officials started criminal court cases against owners or managing agents of seven properties with the oldest sheds, and have been working backward from cases going back 10 years.

“Sidewalk sheds are a critical tool for protecting the public against the dangers of falling debris,” Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings, said in a statement. “However, these same sheds can also be a nuisance when building owners let repair work languish, keeping their sheds up far longer than necessary. In recent years we’ve strengthened our enforcement protocols, increased fines, and are taking aggressive action in court to compel these owners to make the needed repairs to their buildings, so that these sheds can be taken down, returning valuable street space to New Yorkers.”

But, still, a good handful have been up for at least a decade. Patch took a look at four of the oldest.

Here's what happens to a building and a block when a city-defined “temporary structure” turns more-or-less permanent.

Old scaffolds, old stories

The handsome 409 Edgecombe Ave. apartment building boasts a storied history going back to the Harlem Renaissance.

Thurgood Marshall and W.E.B. Du Bois were among its distinguished former residents, WNYC reported.

This history has helped it gain another, perhaps less-desirable distinction — the oldest continuous sidewalk shed permit in the city, granted on April 27, 2006.

The scaffolding went up to protect people from falling debris during a restoration project. But it stayed up after a lightning strike damaged that work and funds ran dry.

“We’re hoping it’ll come down soon,” a resident told Patch. “It’s shelter on a rainy day but there is a legitimate fear that something will fall down.”

Many of the city’s oldest scaffolds are on landmarked structures.

The building at 24-26 West Ninth St. in the West Village is one such structure. Neighbors’ frustration over its scaffold — which has been up, sporadically then continuously, since 1999 — has grown to the point where they formed a group called Take It Down.

"The shed blocks the light and fresh air for tenants. It means noise all night for neighbors. Drunks, drug users, garbage, and rats collect under these sheds," Take It Down representatives wrote in a statement to Patch.

"Plants, shrubs, and trees suffer. It's cheaper and easier for owners of older, badly maintained buildings to leave a sidewalk shed up for years, figuring it'll be there for the next issue the building will have. Instead of compelling the landlord to do the work, the DOB just restarts the clock with a new permit."

But George Adams, who heads the building’s ownership group, pointed blame at the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, although he didn’t specify as to how.

"Landmarks is the problem,” he said, hanging up before a Patch reporter could ask a follow-up question.

About a third of sheds are up to protect against unsafe facade conditions, according to the DOB. Owners are required to make changes within 90 days and, under a recent rule change, can face tens of thousands of dollars in monthly fines.

But a dirty little not-so-secret is many building owners find it cheaper to keep them up than pay for the costly repairs.

City Council Member Ben Kallos has expressed frustration, like many other city dwellers, over scaffolding standing for years.

“It is frankly embarrassing for us as a City that we cannot get these repairs done and get the sheds down," he recently told Patch.

Permits, complaints pile up

Squished next to a Hampton Inn, the brick facade of 335 West 39th St. is an empty shell.

The building is stripped inside, with only a sole wooden chair visible. But its exterior’s scaffold bears all the literal signs of a construction site in bright neon.

The 12-year-old scaffold also displays a flurry of permits and a prominent “stop work order.” Construction stopped several weeks ago and along with the immense amount of dust the work created, said the owner of neighboring Aleef Deli, who didn’t want to be named.

“The scaffold is coming down soon,” he said he was told.

If the scaffold comes down, it’ll be the first time the building won’t have a shed since Jan. 8, 2009, when the city issued a permit.

And a long trail of all-caps complaints to the Department of Buildings shows construction since then has been stop-and-start, at best.

“OLD BUILDING NOT OCCUPIED NO WORK IS BEING DONE THE SHED RUNS UP THE BUILDING ITS LEVEL ITS BEEN HERE FOR 8YRS DEBRIS ARE FALLING FROM THE SHED NO LIGHTS THE PLYWOOD IS MISSING,” a complaint from December 2017 states.

A scaffold has been in front of 66 Reade St. for 13 years, according to city records. A nearby nail salon employee said she sees construction off and on.

“It looks like they’re doing something,” she said, emphasizing “looks.”

The shed hasn’t attracted a long trail of official complaints, but it’s part of a block dominated by scaffolding. A web of pipes supports wooden canopies over near a nearby bar, dance studio and a Starbucks.

Across the street at 67 Reade St., a scaffold that’s nine months old is serving as a makeshift shelter for someone.

The sidewalk sheds on this block, both old and new, are just a fraction of the 331 miles of scaffolding covering the city. Kallos told Patch none should be up for more than 90 days.

There's a bill in consideration currently that would enforce the 90-day rule.

“With over 300 miles of scaffolding crowding City sidewalks, hurting local businesses, and ruining quality of life, the time is now to enact this reform,” he said.

Patch writers Sarah Belle Lin and Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.