New Construction Laws Ask for Glass That Birds Can See – to Keep Them Safer

Building collisions cause up to one billion bird deaths in the U.S. per year. In response, New York City introduced a new bird-friendly building legislation – enforcing rules on building design, use of glass and other factors that affect bird mortality.

Approved by the New York City Council on December 10, the Proposed Initiative 1482-B is dubbed “the most broad-reaching bird-friendly building policy in the country” to date by the American Bird Conservancy, one of the several stakeholders who worked with the city council on the legislation.

The new policy will require materials used in constructing new buildings to adhere to bird-friendly standards. Buildings renovating their glass windows will also need to use special kinds of glass that are more visible to birds to reduce the risk of collision. Doing so has proved extremely effective in the past: when FXCollaborative renovated New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in 2013 to include the special glass, the center saw a whopping 90% drop in bird deaths – with an added bonus of reduced energy cost.

The bill will become law on December 10 of this year, one year after it’s been approved, obliging all new or significantly altered buildings to follow the new rules.