Penn Designing Sheds

So when we first heard that a PennDesign first-year student won some contest for his "urban shed" design, we were slightly intrigued. What is an urban shed and why have we never seen one?

After a little more investigation (and the picture shown here), we finally learned that Young-Hwan Choi's design will keep you safe from falling objects while dining under New York City construction sites—or any other sidewalk areas for that matter.

His umbrella-like design won $10,000 as part of this year's urbanSHED International Design Competition and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg raved about the possibility of these industrial umbrellas, saying that "reflect the face of a city that is constantly changing."

So (construction) hats off to you, Young-Hwan. Now if only the Biology Department invested in a few.