New York Sanitation

The Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 Garage stands directly across Spring Street from its sibling, the Salt Shed, wrapped in a shimmering skin of 2,600 perforated metal fins. Where the Salt Shed reads as one sharp crystalline form, the garage is soft and diaphanous — a veiled, scrim-like façade that filters daylight, obscures the building's mechanical bulk, and shields the glare of truck headlights from the neighborhood at night. Completed in 2015 by Dattner Architects with WXY architecture + urban design, it houses three sanitation districts' worth of operations: over 150 vehicles, wash bays, fueling, and repair facilities, topped by a 1.5-acre green roof.

Set beside the Salt Shed's faceted concrete planes, the garage acts as its quiet counterpart — taut and glowing against the shed's crystalline mass. It's a rare case of civic infrastructure treated with real architectural ambition, earning LEED Gold certification and becoming a model for the city's Active Design program, proof that even a truck garage can be given presence and care.