New York City is finally getting the street life it deserves

This summer, restaurants will erect permanent outdoor dining structures, reshaping the way people interact with the city in the process.

For the past four years, New York City’s streets have become the unexpected site of a grand architectural experiment. I’m referring to the thousands of outdoor dining structures that have cropped up since the pandemic. They started out as temporary lifelines cobbled together from whatever restaurants could find—think plywood, corrugated polycarbonate, and the occasional garland of fake flowers—and eventually became as creatively designed as the city’s restaurants themselves.

It’s rare for an entirely new structure to suddenly be everywhere, and watching them evolve has been delightful. They earned recognition as folk architecture, underscored a neighborhood’s identity, and demonstrated bold ideas. (And yes, some have deteriorated into eyesores and rats nests.) But most importantly, these often strange and curious sheds proved to the city that the curb could serve a higher purpose than parking. Now the permanent program, named Dining Out NYC, is finally underway.