Anthony Garcia
1980
American urbanist who, with Mike Lydon, gave tactical urbanism its name and its method.
Garcia and Lydon took a practice that already existed — painting a crossing, closing a street on a Sunday, putting benches where there were none — and turned it into a method: cheap, reversible interventions that test an idea before committing budget.
Its value lies in inverting the usual order. Instead of study, design, works and evaluation, you trial first and measure afterwards. That lets a provisional bike lane prove its demand before being paved, and makes a mistake cost paint rather than a political term.
On Anthony Garcia in this archive
- Public space
Innovation or disguised austerity in tactical urbanism?
A neighborhood plaza, a Saturday morning. Volunteers with rollers paint large colored circles on the asphalt.
Anthony Garcia 3 min read - Public space
Tactical urbanism: testing the city before building it
Tactical urbanism tests plazas, bike lanes and pop-up gardens to find out what works on the street before it is…
Anthony Garcia 2 min read
