We’re at the beginning of a physical, cultural, and political cycle of change.
(ideas.work.) Delayed, delayed, delayed, but guess what? One of Atlanta Magazine’s 2019 Most Anticipated Restaurants of the Year is finally open instead as a shared workspace and social house on the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. Want to join right now? BECOME A MEMBER Want to learn more? ABOUT AFTERCAR If […]
(ideas.work.) Aftercar is a work in progress, but we’re opening anyway on April 1 – yes, April Fools Day is a fitting start. I want to give a special shoutout […]
(ideas.work.) Now opening in January 2022, Aftercar has begun to explore what it means to create a solarpunk social house. Construction has finally started, and as part of a modest […]
(ideas.work. ) After a slow start, Aftercar is finally underway. Phase One will open by February as a social house and shared workspace. Ryan Gravel, original visionary behind the Atlanta […]
(ideas. work) It’s been a tough few years for aspirational city-building. With all the intolerance and polarization in our country, combined with COVID-19, many of us are in survival mode […]
(ideas.work.) Much has been made recently of the fact that many of America’s highways are racist. It started when USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg told April Ryan in an interview with […]
(ideas.videos.) On the morning of May 7, I had the huge honor of giving the commencement address for PhD graduates at the Georgia Institute of Technology, my alma mater. I […]
(ideas.) Following my op-ed in The Guardian about an idea for what to do with the Confederate carving at Stone Mountain, I connected with a growing and diverse group of […]
(work. ideas.) I’ve had a rough week, so this morning I went hiking on a tract of land that hopefully will one day become part of the South River Forest. […]
(ideas. press.) Georgia law protects Stone Mountain’s racist Confederate carving but there are still things we can do now. I wrote this Op-Ed for The Guardian and they ran it […]
(ideas.) We didn’t get to this place in American history by chance and we’re not going to get out of it easily. We’ll never move forward if we only listen to the people who built and support the systems and institutions that hold us here. We need new ideas. We […]
(ideas.) I hadn’t thought much about flags until I saw a tweet from Marian Liou suggesting Atlanta needed a new one. Following that was a link to a TED Talk […]
(ideas.) Like a lot of people, about two and a half weeks ago my calendar was essentially cleared of meetings and travel. I’m lucky – the only impacts so far […]
This December marks the 20th anniversary of my Atlanta Beltline thesis (dang!) and, as I’ve said, even with all of its challenges, I’m damn proud of the progress we’ve made. […]
(ideas.) Twenty years ago, I never imagined we would actually build the Atlanta Beltline. I just wanted to graduate – which I did. I finished my Beltline thesis in December […]
(work.ideas.) This column first appeared on the Kendeda Living Building Chronicle to celebrate the completion of the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech. Read more from this […]
(ideas.) I’m in Los Angeles to participate in the Ford Motor Company’s “City of Tomorrow” event. My panel is called “Take Back the Streets” and like so many other titles I encounter at symposiums like this, it begs the question, “for who?” For who should we take back the streets? […]
I think there’s a market for real estate development that does good in the world. When you look at the scale of unbridled growth that is transforming our cities, not […]
(ideas.) At the end of this post, I’m going to ask you to help Generator get off the ground with a tax-deductible donation. I believe in this concept more than […]
This article was first posted as an op-ed in the Atlanta Business Chronicle: Ryan Gravel Viewpoint: Speak up now if you want transit on all of the Beltline (ideas.) I travel all over the world to talk about the Atlanta Beltline. From Singapore to Sandy Springs, the broad vision that frames […]
(ideas.) With advance apologies and love for my hard-working brothers and sisters in transportation planning, the more I look at the More MARTA plan, the madder and sicker I get. […]
(ideas.) This was never the plan, but two thirds of the Beltline may forever move forward without transit. That’s because MARTA is only committed to one third of the long-promised […]
(ideas.) Dear City Hall, Dear MARTA. Dear decision makers, dear agency staffers, dear community organizers, dear ordinary citizens who may not have been around when we got started in 2001. […]
(ideas.) This call isn’t only about transit. It’s a much wider call-to-action because without transit – soon and urgently – we won’t get the Beltline we’ve been talking about all […]
(ideas.) Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that we need to make our case for transit again, but I am. Honestly – we’ve been putting colored dots on maps, hand-writing community […]
(ideas.) I think it is important we acknowledge that our current national crisis is playing out exactly as expected. Although shocking, the news from the last few days is only […]
(ideas.) I was talking with a friend about the political power of intolerance the other day. She was making the case that our national election exposed the prejudice of a […]
(ideas.) Here’s the TED talk I did in New York in October 2016. > “When we look today in wonder and disgust at the metropolis sprawled before us, we wonder […]
(ideas.) Nearly three weeks later and I’ve successfully spared you my take on the debilitating results of our national election. I’ve been grappling with the populist sentiment that seems to […]
UPDATE > GREAT NEWS! Both ballot referenda passed on election day. While there remains a lot of uncertainty about our national politics, at least locally we will have solid resources […]
(ideas.) The question of whose Beltline we’re building in Atlanta keeps coming up among my friends and on social media. It’s a fair question – especially when some recent decisions […]
(ideas.) This text first appeared as a letter in the Terminus issue of Art Papers, (January/February 2016), for which I was a guest co-editor. The original, along with a letter by Art Papers Editor and Artistic Director Victoria Camblin, can be found here. Also check out the entire Terminus issue […]
(ideas.work.videos) The kind of infrastructure we build matters to the way we live our lives. If we build single-purpose transportation infrastructure that only works for some people some of the […]
(idea.videos.) Here’s a short video (00:03:04) that my colleagues and I put together called “Learning From Sprawl.” It explores the cultural motivations for today’s sprawl, then connects the dots to […]
(ideas.) With the undeniable success of the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail and this November’s groundbreaking of the long-anticipated Westside Trail, we have much to be thankful for. Of course behind […]
(ideas.) This text first appeared in ideas+buildings. “Equity Through Sports + Art: A Design Dialogue in Atlanta.” Read the whole thing here and watch short video of excerpts from the event. Excerpt: “I think this kind of thoughtful and inclusive transition toward a better decision-making process – beyond just sports […]
(ideas.) Gravelblog original. “Planning a More Forward Southland.” Atlanta will open its arms this Saturday for a national gathering of over 5,000 city planners, elected officials, students, consultants, and various […]
(ideas.) Gravelblog original. “The Vulnerability of Car-Dependency.” I spent some down-time during our snowy debacle thinking about how two inches of snow brought metropolitan Atlanta to its knees, leaving thousands […]
(ideas.) Gravelblog original. “Claiming Space for a World Class Cultural Infrastructure.” As I’m writing my book I am constantly reminded how the Atlanta Beltline came to life through a powerful […]
(ideas.) I took my kids out for a bike ride on a beautiful day last spring and the trail was mobbed. I was taking pictures with my phone, including this […]
(ideas.) Launching today (quietly for beta testing). The future of cities will require a global dialog. This is my take on our story. Gravelblog. Pronounce it like “travelogue.” Let’s see where this goes. >> Ryan Gravel
(ideas.videos.) This road is somewhere. But it could be anywhere. It is designed for cars, not for people, and it creates something opposite of “place.” Upon investigation, however, at a […]
(ideas.) This text first appeared in ideas+buildings. “A Case For the Modern Flaneur: Transforming Atlanta One Wanderer at a Time.” Even before Spring fever has set in completely, the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail […]
(ideas.) This text first appeared in ideas+buildings. “The Atlanta Beltline: A Catalyst for Urban Sustainability.” As one of the most sustainable city infrastructure projects underway in the United States, the Atlanta […]
(ideas.) This text first appeared at CNN Opinion. “Turning urban sprawl into sustainable cities.” Also, here’s a related story on CNN International – Link: “Abandoned Railway Turns Urban Sprawl Green.” It may seem ironic that one of the most sustainable city infrastructure projects underway in the United States is taking shape in […]
(ideas.) This article first appeared in Co.Design by Fast Company. “What The Atlanta BeltLine Can Teach Us About Urban Revitalization.” It’s time to move away from automobile-oriented infrastructure and invest in public […]
(ideas.videos.) On Saturday, February 11, 2011, over 450 people showed up to see the southern end of the old Southern Railway for the very last time in its raw state. The idea for the walk started with Angel Poventud, one of the Atlanta Beltline’s biggest fans. He organizes hikes along the […]
(ideas.) Translation: “Atlanta’s changes will be quite dramatic.” This text first appeared in the Saporta Report as a guest column. “Atlanta can gain inspiration from the “little belt” in Paris.” It was […]
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