Urban Umbrella, the industry-disrupting scaffolding company that began prettifying New York sidewalks in 2017, has finally made its way up to Harlem.
Its signature white scaffolding–resembling a series of Art Nouveau umbrellas–recently went up around the Greater Zion Hill Baptist Church at 2365 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 127th Street.
The first new sidewalk shed design in half a century, Urban Umbrella's structure eliminates traditional cross bracing that blocks street-level windows, while also offering a clear resin roof and stylish, halo-like LED lights.
The company's simple white parapet and graceful arches are the perfect complement to the Harlem church's neo-Classical cornice; the building was once a branch of the Provident Loan Society designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker in 1912.
