Mapping New York's Informal Street Furniture

Street Seats is the brainchild of Mike Lydon, a principal at Street Plans, who was inspired to document the DIY sidewalk seating culture that provides "one of the great joys, if not necessities of urban living."

As Sarah Goodyear explains, the project "pays tribute to the importance of such humble streetside accommodation by crowdsourcing and mapping places to sit around the city – the countless benches, chairs, and stools that are just part of the culture here."

"The Street Seats site is designed both to document this phenomenon and to serve as inspiration to other places," adds Goodyear. "Lydon says he is always moved when he sees the effort and expense put forward by small businesses and individuals to give passers-by a place to sit and enjoy the world going by. 'You see it everywhere,' he says. 'It’s like a gift to the street.'”