Where is your favorite outdoor patio, and what makes it great?

The Westcott Remix will include an outdoor space on the sidewalk level. This space is planned to measure approximately 30’ by 30’ and would sit at the south-east corner of the building, right along the sidewalk. We need to determine the best way to use it, considering both its relationship to the sidewalk and to one of the building’s commercial spaces. Some questions before us are:

How public or private should this space feel?
Will the patio serve one purpose, or be multi-functional?
Will there be a boundary between the sidewalk and the patio?
Will the design be fixed, or flexible enough to accommodate a variety of uses?

The outdoor public space planned for Remix

There are many good solutions for this space, however we answer these questions. One possibility is that the entire patio could function as an enclosed outdoor seating area for a restaurant or cafe on the southern end of the building. The simplicity of this approach would allow us to create a fully-realized, cozy, and welcoming patio dining space. We’ve included some examples below of similar spaces.

Alternatively, the patio could feel like an extension of the sidewalk. There would be no barrier separating this space from the public walkway, and seating would be arranged in a temporary fashion. This arrangement would provide more flexibility, accommodating a variety of uses throughout the day and year, and could continue to change as the community sees fit. In a space like this, one could imagine enjoying take-out from nearby restaurants, playing a game of chess, meeting up with a friend, dancing your pants off at a public party, and much more. Figuring out how to share this space successfully might be challenging, but creates some exciting opportunities.

Here are examples of different types of outdoor spaces that we like:

Cozy patios:

Apizza Regionale, Syracuse

Tiny Bar & Olga’s, Providence

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Sidewalk extensions:

Blue Tusk, Syracuse

De Pasquale Square, Providence

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