Philosopher Zed Adams Documents the Ephemeral Nature of COVID-Era Outdoor Eating in “Twenty Six Outdoor Dining Structures”
The COVID-19 pandemic changed many things about life in New York City, including creating a new era of outdoor dining. Recently Zed Adams, associate professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities at The New School, released a new type of work for him—a photobook called Twenty Six Outdoor Dining Structures, which, he calls “a documentary history of outdoor dining structures in NYC over the past two years.”
To Adams, the structures that have proliferated are “ramshackle improvisations, patched together out of makeshift materials. They’re manifestly inadequate to the challenge of surviving in NYC. That’s what makes them so charming.”
Some of the questions that prompted Adams’ exploration were: What’s the overall form of the structure; is it more cubicle, pergola, or shed? What materials were used—rough or finished, prefab or jerry-rigged? Is it mimetic? How congruent is it with the rest of the streetscape? How does it hold itself together? He was taken by lack of expertise involved, writing “part of what makes these structures so refreshing is their lack of professionalism, their air of being spontaneously thrown together with whatever is at hand. They often look as if their designs emerged in the process of being built, the product less of premeditated planning than of organic mutation.”
In a city known for its multitude of codes and regulations around building structures, Adams notes that during the pandemic, “it suddenly became easy to build temporary structures in commandeered parking spaces, with minimal safety regulations and no creative oversight. The result is the liveliest streetscape we’ve had in decades…These structures represent a new form of participatory urbanism, one not centered around opposition to the grand plans of developers but around the willingness to make your own fun.”
Available in limited quantities, the book is on sale at three local bookstores: Quimby’s and Spoonbill & Sugartown, both in Brooklyn, and Topos, in Ridgewood, NY.