Mike Lydon (Guest Curator)

Mike Lydon is Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative and the primary author of The Open Streets Project and Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change — two research efforts of Pattern Cities, a project about cities and the ideas they incubate.

Before launching The Street Plans Collaborative in 2009, Lydon worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Ann Arbor’s GetDowntown Program. From 2006 - 2009 Mike worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ), an international leader in the practice of smart growth planning, design, and research techniques. There, Mike worked extensively on Miami 21, the recipient of the American Planning Association’s 2011 National Planning Excellence Award.

Together with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck, Mike is co-author of The Smart Growth Manual, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2009 and honored by Planetizen as one of the top ten planning books of 2010. As a planner, writer, and advocate, Mike’s work has appeared in or been featured by CNN Headline News, Planetizen, Grist, Utne Reader, Next American City Magazine, and The Village Voice, among other publications.

Mike received a B.A. in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Mike was selected as one of 34 Urban Vanguards by Next American City magazine in 2009.

For "Imagining North Adams," Mike will co-curate the Tactical Urbanism Salon and project.