Join us for a public lecture with Ryan Gravel, the visionary architect and urban planner behind the Atlanta Beltline. A social hour will be held starting at 5:30pm, with the lecture following at 6pm; admittance is free and street parking is available.
About the Lecture:
The Atlanta Beltline was born in academia as a simple idea for a better way of life. Now, it’s a $4 billion infrastructure project in the early stages of implementation. Its original author, Ryan Gravel, will describe how this catalyst project came to life, what it means, and why it matters. Building on the title of his new book, Where We Want to Live, Gravel will expand on these ideas, sharing how similarly-transformative projects – from the Rail Park in Singapore to the concrete Los Angeles River – represent a new kind of cultural momentum that will reshape the way we build cities. He’ll conclude with current work on the Atlanta City Design, a daunting endeavor to go deeper than the Atlanta Beltline and discover the city’s civic identity. By organizing around its core values, the city will ensure that its anticipated growth will deliver the best version of Atlanta, not some other place that people don’t like or recognize anymore.
About Ryan Gravel:
Ryan Gravel is an urban planner, designer, and author working on infrastructure, concept development, and policy as the founder of Sixpitch. His master’s thesis launched the Atlanta Beltline, which through fifteen years of progress, is now changing both the physical form of his city and the decisions people make about living there. Alongside other projects at Sixpitch and research on similar “catalyst infrastructure” projects around the world, Ryan’s book, “Where We Want to Live,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), investigates this cultural side of infrastructure, describing how its intimate relationship with our way of life can illuminate a brighter path forward for cities.
Website: www.ryangravel.com
Social: @ryangravel on Twitter and Instagram