This public event, which marks the official end of the Open Restaurants Innovation program, will feature presentations by three teams who have been working directly with multiple stakeholders, including restaurateurs, disability advocates, and city agency staff, to determine recommendations for the city’s permanent outdoor dining program.

Open Restaurants Innovation is a multiphase collaboration with the Alfresco NYC coalition, NYCxDESIGN’s Design Corps, Design Advocates, and several NYC agencies. The initiative started as an open call for designers and restaurateurs with outdoor dining experience to to share their work, highlighting innovative designs, materials, and methodologies, to inform design policy for the city’s permanent Open Restaurants program. Submitted projects were vetted by a selection committee charged with identifying three teams to lead an effort to draft design-informed recommendations for the Alfresco NYC coalition to incorporate into their final report to the City. After the teams were selected, Open Restaurants Innovation held three open workshops during which the selected teams shared ideas and concepts with city agencies and stakeholders.

This program will showcase the findings of these three teams. After a presentation by each team, the program will transition to an open dialogue between team leaders to discuss the future of the Open Restaurants program.

Teams:
BVN, led by Nick Flutter and Nikita Notowidigdo
Communal Design, led by Andre Soluri, AIA
EXD, led by Victoria Benatar and Michelle Cianfaglione

This event is offered virtually. If you register for an online ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program.