37-34 Minimum Transparency Requirements

The ground floor level street wall along a primary street frontage or a designated retail street set forth in a Special Purpose District, as applicable, shall be glazed with transparent materials which may include show windows, transom windows or glazed portions of doors, except as set forth in Section 37-31 (Applicability).

Such transparent materials shall occupy at least 50 percent of the surface area of such ground floor level street wall between a height of two feet and 12 feet, or the height of the ground floor ceiling, whichever is higher, as measured from the adjoining sidewalk. Transparent materials provided to satisfy such 50 percent requirement shall not begin higher than 2 feet, 6 inches, above the level of the adjoining sidewalk, with the exception of transom windows, or portions of windows separated by mullions or other structural dividers, and shall have a minimum width of two feet. The maximum width of a portion of the ground floor level street wall without transparency shall not exceed 10 feet.

However, such transparency requirements shall not apply to portions of the ground floor level occupied by entrances or exits to accessory off-street parking facilities and public parking garages, where permitted, entryways to required loading berths, where permitted, entryways to subway stations, as applicable, or doors accessing emergency egress stairwells and passageways.