(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(work.) In early 2016, Sixpitch founder Ryan Gravel completed a collaborative effort with the staff and board at Chattahoochee NOW that culminated with “Vision53” – a document that outlines a […]
(work.) In early 2016, Sixpitch founder Ryan Gravel began working with Tim Keane, Commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Planning and Community Development, on the Atlanta City Design. Supported by urban […]
(work.) We’re looking for a talented, reliable, self-starting urban designer able to work part-time contract on cool projects. Work is mostly graphic, (Adobe Creative Cloud), including district plans, diagrams, and renderings. Style is important. Atlanta preferred but not required. Meet during business hours. Rates are starting-range but negotiable. Send inquiries […]
(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 […]
Q: Why did you resign from the Board of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership? (faq.) Yesterday, after weeks of deliberation, Nathaniel Smith and I resigned from the board of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. He’s the Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity. While this was not […]
Q: The Atlanta Beltline’s vision is so amazing. Why should we settle for less when we don’t have to? (faq.) Related to my recent “Our Beltline” post, here’s a specific example. Below is my letter to the Inman Park Neighborhood Association Board regarding the redevelopment of 670-690 DeKalb Avenue […]
(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 […]
(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. […]
(work.) We’re counting down the days. After many years, “Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities,” launches March 15! Your first chance to get a signed copy is at the launch event the very next day. On MARCH 16 at 7:00 pm, A […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(research.) Deb Eddy came to town in the summer of 2015 just to check out the Atlanta Beltline. By her account she was inspired – and she went home to […]
(work.) Six ideas worth reading about, every six weeks or so. Get your fix with six links to stories and ideas about the future of cities. That’s it. Sign up here. >> Ryan Gravel The first issue will be posted here after January 1, 2016.
(research.) It took me a little while to figure out what I was looking at when I took a short trip to Denver and saw the 130-year-old High Line Canal. […]
(research.) The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy asked me to meet them in Baltimore to share our Atlanta Beltline story. Also inspired by similar projects across the country, RTC and some civic leaders there are looking at a 35-mile loop around the city. Starting right at the Inner Harbor in the heart of […]
(research.) Bernard Zyscovich told me about his “Plan Z” idea for the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami, so on my next trip, I made a point to tackle it. It’s a […]
(research.) Some of the controversy in Miami around real estate development in the railroad that might one day carry the Ludlam Trail reminded me of an early challenge we had on the Atlanta Beltline, but I hadn’t seen it for myself. I finally made it out there on a borrowed […]
(research.) We took our kids on an autumn trip to see Fallingwater, the masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright. While we were there, we visited the nearby town of Ohiopyle and […]
(videos.) A few weeks ago, as I was digging through a decade and a half of Atlanta Beltline memories, I came across a digital memory of our early movement in […]
(research.) I went to share our story in Milwaukee as part of Newaukee’s YP Week and while I was there, I met with some people working on a reclaimed section of the old “Milwaukee Road” railroad just north of downtown. Roughly half its 1.2-mile length has already been converted into […]
(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 […]
(research.) One of the hottest things in Miami can’t be found in South Beach. Extending south-easterly from Brickell to Coral Gables and South Miami is a 1980s-era elevated transit line. […]
(research.) Singapore is an island, a city, and a nation all in one. It’s at the southern end of the Malaysian peninsula, and there’s a railroad that crosses a bridge […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(research.) I’ve been to Austin a few times in the last year or so, and I love exploring the trails around Lady Bird Lake. The coolest part of the 10-mile […]
Q: Where is everybody going? Where’s the there there? (faq.) A: Some people seem to always be missing the point with the Atlanta Beltline. That’s fine, I guess. It […]
(research.) I was in Washington DC to speak at the Eco-Districts Summit and took some time to ride down to the Washington Navy Yard along the Anacostia River. I wanted […]
(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: […]
Q: What should we expect with the opening of the Westside Trail? How will its success compare to the eastside? (faq.) A: The communities on Atlanta’s eastside are benefitting directly […]
Q: What about gentrification? What is being done to protect people from displacement? (faq.) A: In a growing economy like ours, things like roadside clean-ups, better schools, reduced crime, the […]
(research.) Not only am I from Louisiana and therefore somehow obligated to check in on the Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans, but this project is getting built fast, so I […]
(research.) It was a big honor to be sponsored by MailChimp to go to Indianapolis and speak at the third and final We Are City Summit. Between breaks with local popsicles, gourmet fortune cookies, and craft beer, we learned about cool things going on in the world of cities and […]
(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 […]
