'Tactical Urbanists' converge on New York

Tactical Urbanism is described by Mike Lydon of the Street Plans Collaborative as the use of small-scale, incremental interventions "to instigate positive change in the the built environment." The initiatives don't cost much, and in many instances are not intended to last long, but they can make a city better in at least a small (and imaginative) way.

This Saturday, Oct. 15, the first Tactical Urbanism Salon will take place in the quarters of an informal artist collective called the Flux Factory, in a coverted three-story greeting card factory two blocks north of Queens Plaza in Long Island City, Queens, New York.

From 2 to 10:30 PM, with time out for a happy hour (and with a party afterward), the salon will feature the work and methods of a diverse group of architects, planners, designers, artists, and citizen-activists. Among them:

• DePave, a Portland, Oregon, organization devoted to removing unnecessary asphalt and concrete from urban areas. 

• PlayLab, a design practice involved in marketing and promotion projects for business, retail, museums, galleries and public organizations. Among its projects: an initiative to build a floating pool in the rivers of New York City.

• 72 Hour Urban Action (@72hua), "an international rapid architecture and design festival." 

• Interboro Partners, a Brooklyn-based office of architects, urban designers, and planners that earlier this year won an award for installing a winged formation of taut ropes outside a school in Long Island City.

• CMG Landscape Architecture, a San Francisco firm whose latest project is "Parkmobiles"—movable containers with lush gardens that can be placed in on-street parking spaces. 

The salon will be presented by Street Plans Collaborative, DoTank: Brooklyn, Flux Factory, and Tomorrow Lab, with support from CNU New York, New Urban News, Next American City magazine, Next Generation of New Urbanists, PlayLab, Project for Public Spaces, Social Bicycles, Streetfilms, Team Better Block, Transportation Alternatives, TreeKIT, and Strong Towns. 

Keynote speaker will be Andy Wiley-Schwartz of the New York City Department of Transportation.

The event will be part of the Congress of the Collectives, a series of workshops, panel discussions, film screenings, and other happenings. 

For more information or to register, click on Tactical Urbanism.

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