This clearly wasn’t part of the original conception of Jack Poole Plaza at Convention Centre West:
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Unlike the outdoor patios at the Cactus Club across the way, which were designed as part of the restaurant’s development (and nowhere near as successfully), the impromptu seating for the Tap & Barrel works very well indeed – even though it appropriates some of the public space.
And the reason is straightforward: it’s a European-style arrangement, where the restaurant itself is in the adjacent building and the outdoor seating (without which the restaurant would disappear) is between a walkway and the public square – hence animation on both sides.
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This is also the technique used on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach – possibly the most successful pedestrian mall in North America. (There’s a Price Tags that illustrates it here.)
Further, the different elevations (and public art) add to the dynamic:
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Not to mention the views:
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Well, of course the views are very much the point. And the restaurant has used what was clearly intended as a public viewpoint for further seating, as illustrated above and here:
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So is the appropriation of public space justified? I think so: there are alternatives, the rights-of-way have been kept open, and the restaurant adds a vitality to a massive open space that, when filled, works well but can otherwise be bloodless.
