Scaffolding goes glam
Protection needn’t repel biz
A scaffold that is more art than nuisance will soon be constructed outside a Flatiron office building and a city hall condo.
They are to be the first beneficiaries of a 2010 Big Apple competition to find an esthetically pleasing update for the ubiquitous and, usu- ally, ugly scaffolds that dot our streets.
Under city regulations, scaffolding is required to protect pedestrians when façade work or other repairs are under way. But oftentimes scaffolding creates dark and unsightly passageways that are left standing whether work is ongoing or not.
The scaffolding also creates a headache for shop owners whose storefronts are obstructed.
Sales can suffer when the gloomy caves obstruct sign- age and entrances.
Urban Umbrella won the competition and used its $10,000 prize to perfect the system in Toronto. It is now returning to New York to share the visual wealth, starting with several properties, including 20 W. 22nd St. and 19 Murray St.
“We needed to prove we could operate under the largest skyscrapers,” explained Benjamin Krall, co-founder of Urban Umbrella, of the time spent in Canada. “We are launching in Vancouver, Seattle and currently are being installed in front of the largest construction job in downtown Toronto.”
Designed out of recycled steel and translucent plastic panels that come in a variety of colors, the stylish scaffolding resembles an open umbrella. In contrast to the boxy scaffolding New Yorkers hate, “our structural integrity happens in a different way. It eliminates the cross bracing and makes it more open,” Krall said.
Built-in LED lighting enables the firm to do “cool stuff with custom colors.”
A native New Yorker with a venture capitalist background, Krall became intrigued with scaffolding after suffering through repairs to his own co-op apartment. He joined Urban Umbrella two years ago determined to run it like a tech company.
“I connected with them out of the blue and knew I could raise strategic capital and have this young hustle toward this business,” Krall said.
Indeed, he has already raised $2 million in venture capital funding from strategic Big Apple real estate family offices and building owners.
When downtown Manhattan dentist Raphael San
tore heard about Urban Umbrella, he knew he had to use it for the residential building at 19 Murray St. that houses his offices. “Urban Umbrella is so important and so clever and so useful,” he said. “We have a problem with these nasty ugly sheds.”
He also had no problem paying the slight additional cost. The dentist recalled,, “[Krall] probably thinks I‘m a scaffold groupie.”
The former Fiorucci space near Bloomingdale’s has a new tenant. Japanese store Muji has leased 13,000 square feet in the building at 127 E. 59th St. between Lexington and Park avenues.
The two-level space has about 5,700 square feet on the ground and 7,500 below grade. The asking rent was $375 per square foot on the ground and $125 for the lower level. Michael O’Neill and Jason Greenstone of Cushman & Wakefield represented Muji, which has been expanding with new locations in Manhattan. Jeffrey Roseman and Drew Weiss of Newmark Knight Frank Retail represented Benenson Capital Partners, which is installing a new glass façade on the retail box. Another storefront that includes the ground and second floor is still available. Earlier tenant Fiorucci’s was a department store that had the ambiance of a disco, with edgy graphics, music and window-dancing staffers including Joey Arias, Klaus Nomi and Madonna’s younger brother Christopher Ciccone.
It launched the careers of designers like Betsey John
son, while shoppers including Andy Warhol and Jackie Onassis headed there when they needed outfits for Studio 54.