Our stories reach around the world.
(press.) It’s a time-tested strategy to make sure community engagement delivers the recommendations you want. MARTA’s project evaluation, handful of meetings, and unscientific online survey were designed to do exactly that, and it worked. Amy Wenk captured my initial reaction in this story for the Atlanta Business Chronicle: “As vote […]
[press.] People talk about the Atlanta Beltline like it’s a single project impacting a single community – but it’s a much larger project than that. The Atlanta Beltline’s northside stands […]
[press.] At the Southface Energy Institute’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable on October 6, I joined Hannah Palmer, author of Flight Path, to discuss our books, the future of Atlanta’s southside, and […]
[press.] Inspired by the Atlanta City Design’s inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement, Diana Budds pens this thoughtful piece for Co.Design – “Atlanta Is Fighting Urban Inequality–With An Idea From […]
[press.] Following the September 2017 unveiling of the Atlanta City Design, Jared Brey covered what it means for Atlanta in this article for Next City. “New Atlanta Planning Book Takes Cue From Martin Luther King Jr.” Excerpt > Atlanta City Design, unveiled earlier this month, is meant to inform and […]
(press.) I had another chance to talk to WABE’s Rose Scott and Jim Burress on A Closer Look about Atlanta’s population growth and its role in our affordability crisis. “BeltLine […]
(press.work.) It has been an honor to work with Commissioner Tim Keane on this remarkable aspiration for Atlanta’s future. It’s called the Atlanta City Design – Aspiring to the Beloved Community and Thomas Wheatley captured this brief synopsis for Atlanta Magazine. “Ryan Gravel and Tim Keane are sketching a smarter […]
(press.) In Atlanta, we talk a lot about the Atlanta Beltline’s role in the economic and cultural forces of gentrification, but it’s helpful to put it in context with projects in other cities across the country. New York City’s High Line emerged at the same time as ours, and in […]
(press.) Writing for Next City, Jen Kinney compares worldwide riverfront revitalization efforts to an emerging effort by Chattahoochee NOW. In “Atlanta’s Waterfront Access May Soon Improve,” she outlines the group’s […]
(press.) To be clear, I’m not walking away from the project itself, and I never framed progress as an “either/or.” But in “A Beltline Champion Walks Away,” writer Zach Mortice well describes for Landscape Architecture Magazine, inherent tensions between the benefits and challenges of change. Excerpt: “Most of all, Gravel […]
(press.) New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman pens “In ‘By the People,’ Design for the Underserved and Overlooked” – a review of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s latest […]
(press.) With the tongue-in-cheek headline “A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta,” New York Times’ Richard Fausset digs into a cultural shift brought on by the Atlanta Beltline, […]
(press.) With the release of Where We Want To Live, CityLab’s Richard Florida and Ryan Gravel engage in conversation about “Building Infrastructure for More Inclusive Communities.” Excerpt: “I get the fear of big ideas, but I think it’s more about a distrust for our ability to implement big ideas according […]
(press.) Alex Bozikovic writes this book review in one of Canada’s most widely read newspapers: “Ryan Gravel’s Where We Want To Live explores contemporary city-building.” Excerpt: “Gravel makes a case – as cogent as any I’ve seen – for why governments need to favour this form of development and stop […]
(press.) In anticipation of the release of Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities, Atlanta Magazine published two pieces in their March issue. […]
(press.) New York Times contributing columnist Allison Arieff, who is also the Editorial Director at SPUR in San Francisco, penned this Op-Ed in early 2015, “What Happened to the Great […]
(press.) Leading into Newaukee’s 2015 YP Week, Urban Milwaukee published “How the Beltline Project Is Changing Atlanta” by Andrew McCann. Excerpt: “As a public space, the Beltline is already performing a variety of functions. The first and most significant is its rapidly developing role as a connective structure between Atlanta’s […]
(press.) Our story is recounted for Coca-Cola’s internal media, “Inside the Beltline: How a Grad School Thesis Became an Engine for Urban Revitalization and Economic Growth in Atlanta,” by Jay Croft. Excerpt: “Atlanta prides itself on being known as the home of Martin Luther King, Jr., the 1996 Olympic Games […]
(press.) Nice article by OZY writer Sanjena Sathian – USA Today picked up her story, “The transit makeover of Atlanta” at the close of 2014. Excerpt: “Everyone, from my mother to the mayor to environmentalists to the White House, proclaims that this unlikely city, with its long history of segregation […]
(press.) In its December 2014 cover story, “Unbroken Circle” by Susan Percy, the case is made for the Atlanta Beltline as “a unifying force, built on the very railroads that […]
(press.) Nice perspective on the role of the Atlanta Beltline in rethinking the relationship between our health and the world around us. Author Michael Eriksen is the Dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. He wrote this for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Atlanta Forward blog, “Project provides civic […]
(press.) This article for Rails to Trails Magazine was written by Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. It goes beyond the Atlanta Beltline to describe a culture that is “Transforming Atlanta.” Excerpt: “The BeltLine, as Woolard puts it, “is the one forum where it all comes together: […]
(press.) Cool coverage by Jeff Chu in international design and business journal, Monocle titled, “On the Right Path.” Excerpt: “In 1999, Ryan Gravel – then an urban planning student at Georgia […]
(press.) Awesome, unexpected first headline to include the working title for my book after speaking to this group in Indy. The Indianapolis Star reports, “We Are City seeks to build ‘Infra-Culture.’” […]
(press.) Nice long-form blog Q&A for I Think We Should Talk by Paul Sternberg: “Ryan Gravel.” Excerpt: “In other words, it’s a game-changer for a city like Atlanta. … Ryan and I talked recently about process, which goes well beyond having a radical idea. It’s about going places, seeing things, and meeting people. […]
(press.) Here’s a follow-up Q&A to the first story – an interview with Claire Nelischer of the Centre for City Ecology and Anna Hill with Park People, “Infrastructure and our way of life: lessons from the Atlanta BeltLine.” Excerpt: “AH: From what you’ve seen and heard during your time in […]
(press.) Insightful story by Claire Nelischer of the Centre for City Ecology in Spacing. Link: “The Atlanta BeltLine: Catalyst infrastructure and city systems.” Excerpt: “The positive impact of parks investments […]
(press.) Great update by Rebecca Burns in Atlantic Cities. Link: “Can Atlanta Go All In on the BeltLine?” Excerpt: “I was immediately taken by it; not because I am brilliant but because Ryan’s idea was brilliant,” recalls Woolard. At the time, constituents would call her “constantly” to complain about the […]
(press.) Nice profile in Planning, the journal of the American Planning Association, which held its 2014 national conference in Atlanta in April 2014. Link: “At the beginning” by Ben Smith > article runs after the headline story, “Emerald Necklace, Southern Style” by Alexander Garvin. Excerpt: “Mass-mailing a graduate student thesis to […]
(backstory.press.) Here’s a Q&A update for Curbed Atlanta in late 2013. Link: “A Chat With The Guy Whose Thesis Birthed the Beltline.” Excerpt: Curbed: “So how has your life changed since “the thesis” started to become a reality?” Gravel: “The thesis was the easy part. Since then, I’ve changed jobs several times […]
(press.) Nice post in NationSwell, a new media outlet that wants to introduce you to people renewing America. Link: “What’s ‘the Country’s Best Smart Growth Project’? You’ll Be Surprised.” Excerpt: “Years later, when he returned to Paris as a graduate student, he found that the boarded-up, abandoned strip had been transformed into […]
(press.) Architect Magazine wrote a story about the role of tactical urbanism in cities. Link: “Newest Urbanism.” Excerpt: “It’s like tactical urbanism on steroids,” Gravel says. “We built this amazing groundswell of support, even though, over the years, there have been challenges to the direction of the project—its vision, funding, ownership, […]
(press.) From GOOD Magazine‘s “GOOD 100” in 2013. Link: “Meet Ryan Gravel, Building A Better Future.” Excerpt: “For a lot of reasons, this country is changing its cultural expectations for how we live—we’re modifying our American Dream,” Gravel says. “But until our politics catch up with the big policy changes required to […]
(press.videos.) The Atlanta Beltline is more than a sound byte. This long-form (27:13) interview at On Doers with Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani covers the story. “Episode 002 / Ryan Gravel.”
(press.) Project update from the New York Times. Link: “Now Atlanta Is Turning Old Tracks Green.” Excerpt: “Skip Engelbrecht owns an antique furniture store, Paris on Ponce, that backs up to the Eastside Trail. He said business has increased tenfold over the past two years as the trail opened. “It’s unreal. We used […]
(press.videos.) My dog Jackson tagged along for this 2012 interview on CNN International. Link: “Abandoned railway turns urban sprawl green.” Also, here’s a related piece I wrote for CNN Opinion – Link: […]
(press.) My friend Gene Kansas invited me to his studio at Sidewalk Radio in 2012 to talk about the future of “Sweet Auburn” Avenue and the coming of Atlanta’s first modern streetcar. Link: “Episode #17: Auburn Avenue.”
(press.videos.) “Webinar: Atlanta Beltline Corridor Design” for Public Square Atlanta, a community resource created by WABE, Atlanta’s NPR Station. This is a detailed description of the original design concept work […]
(press.) Esquire Magazine‘s “Best & Brightest” for 2006. Link: “Ryan Gravel is Remaking Atlanta.” Excerpt: “Five years of local support and city studies have turned Gravel’s Beltline into one of the most ambitious modern ideas for the refurbishing of an American city on the verge of actually happening (though it’ll […]
(press.) Front page of the Arts section in the New York Times. Link: “The Greening of Downtown Atlanta.” Excerpt: “But it has taken on a life of its own, exhibiting a rare power to capture the imagination of diverse interest groups, from cyclists to powerful developers, and to flatten opposition. It […]
