Below, a construction fence of typical New York design.
Such fences here have had windows of some kind going back at least to the mid-1900s. Per the current NYC building code, section 3307.7.3, “Viewing panels shall be provided in solid fences erected on or after July 1, 2013, at a NYC rate one for every 25 linear feet (7.6 m) per frontage, with a minimum of one per frontage. Viewing panels shall be 12 inches by 12 inches (305 by 305 mm) in size and shall be blocked with nonfrangible acrylic paneling or equivalent material….” and so on. While I assume there is a reason for such windows related to the Department of Buildings being able to conduct its business, people in the city have long held as a right the ability to peer into construction sites and comment on the goings on there.
Note that the equivalent section (3306.6) of the IBC, the national base building code, talks briefly about fence construction but says nothing about windows. On the other hand, Chapter 33 of the New York code, “Safeguards During Construction or Demolition,” is 106 pages long, while the IBC’s chapter 33, “Safeguards During Construction,” is five pages. Construction in a densely built-up city is more difficult to perform safely than in other places.
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