Effective January 10th, 2021, new buildings and alterations that replace exterior glazing of a building must comply with bird-friendly design construction requirements as per Local Law 15 of 2020. Exterior glazing refers to a building’s glass panels and elements and does apply to alterations that do not replace all the exterior glazing of the building or storefront replacements of a portion of exterior glazing within the building.
Local Law 15 of 2020 applies to the following;
1. All new buildings filed on or after January 10th, 2021
2. Existing buildings with an alteration including replacement of all glass components
You are exempt from complying with Local Law 15 of 2020 if one or more of the following applies to you;
1. Your building is existing and not altering the glass components
2. Existing applications filed before January 10th, 2021 that have reached job status D (application processed - completed)
What glass components are Local Law 15 of 2020 referring to?
1. Glass windows
2. Glass awnings
3. Glass handrail and guards
4. Glass window break panels
5. Glass acoustic barriers
The idea of Local Law 15 is not to eliminate bird collisions but to reduce them significantly by installing bird-friendly material for all transparent components especially where "fly-through conditions" are created on a structure.
What are fly-through conditions?
Below are a few examples of fly-through conditions;
