New York City Passes Law for Bird-Friendly Exterior Requirement for Buildings

New York City is home to a large number of the United States’ tall and supertall buildings, many of which are wrapped in window glazing. All of those buildings come at a cost, though, as unsuspecting birds crash into these “invisible” buildings and die – by the millions – each year. A new law in NYC would help to reduce that number.

Announced last week, the New York City Council has approved Proposed Initiative 1482B, which will create requirements for bird-friendly building exteriors throughout the city. The next step is to have the bill signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

According to the New York City Audubon, a Wildlife protection group, an estimated 90,000 to 230,000 birds die each year in New York City alone. Estimated bird deaths by building collision country-wide are anywhere between 500 million and 1 billion, an astonishingly high number.

City Lab reports that the proposed bill would require the bottom 75 feet of new buildings in the city to be designed with bird-friendly exterior materials, such as patterned glass. Existing buildings will not be required to apply any bird-friendly treatment, unless they are renovated after the bill goes into effect. If signed by Mayor DeBlasio, the law will become active in December of 2020.

Last year, the Milwaukee Bucks’ new basketball arena received the moniker of the “World’s First Bird Friendly Arena” for using a window treatment called fritting and controlling the arena’s lighting to make it darker overnight. Fritting is a pattern on the glass hat still allows transparency, but allows birds to more clearly see that it’s an object that they can run into. The arena became the first professional sports arena to earn a LEED credit for “bird collision deterrence.”

Full story: New York City Passes Country’s Most Wide-ranging Bird-friendly Building Legislation | New York City Audubon

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