Famed Designer Draws Up Plan to Save Restaurants Through Outdoor Dining
David Rockwell has created a prototype for how restaurants that don’t normally have much sidewalk space can achieve al fresco dining as New York explores ways to open up streets.
A rendering for outdoor space at Melba’s in Manhattan’s Harlem.
Source: Rockwell Group
The sprawling sidewalk café lifestyle is prevalent in cities around the world, from Rome to Miami. New York, not so much.
But the Big Apple’s cityscape might be changing in response to the ruinous effects of the coronavirus on the restaurant industry. Last week, Polly Trottenberg, commissioner of New York’s Department of Transportation commissioner announced that an interagency group was looking at how the city could expedite the permitting process to enable outdoor dining for restaurants, giving them additional space for socially distanced dining.