Jeffrey, Bruce and Kenneth. Jeffrey Friedlander retired as second in command in the city’s Law Department in 2015.

The salt shed had many mothers and fathers, starting with the architects who collaborated on the project, WXY and Dattner Architects; Amanda M. Burden, who chaired the City Planning Commission under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; and James S. Polshek, a member of the Public Design Commission.

Rick Bell, executive director of the excellence program in the city’s Department of Design and Construction, said in 2015 that the shed might be the most important change to the public face of the Sanitation Department since its fleet was painted white in 1967.

The shed’s concrete walls are six feet thick, leading the architect Richard Dattner to imagine some future civilization stumbling on it just as Charlton Heston’s character discovers the remnants of the Statue of Liberty in the film “Planet of the Apes.”

“They will wonder,” Mr. Friedlander said, “why did these people worship salt?”

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