Ray Gastil, working with Civic Design and Planning LLC, Michael Baker International, and the Quaker Valley Council of Governments, contributed to the charrettes, study and report on “Redefining Regional Highways Corridors: Strategic Design Guide: Opportunities for Design, Transportation, Economic Development, and Governance,” with COG and PennDOT support. How can a safer, greener, and more thriving corridor be developed, from the historic Ohio River Boulevard, that better connects to communities and creates more opportunities. 
Author Archives: Ray Gastil
“Adaptive Preservation” article by Ray Gastil on two iconic Pittsburgh structures
Ray Gastil writes on the Adaptive Preservation of two iconic Pittsburgh structures, a 1920s distribution building, the Produce Terminal in the Strip District, and the 1940s steel plant building, Mill 19, in Hazelwood Green in Hazelwood, discussing the process of adapting historic structures as part of contemporary programs in the context of the public realm. In Preservation Education and Research (PER) 2021.
Ray Gastil on Design and Equity: The Value of Eliminating Equity Gaps
Ray Gastil spoke at the Climate Change and the Design of the Built Environment Symposium at Georgia Tech February 8, 2021, addressing affordable housing and broader urban challenges.
Ray Gastil on Podcast on Cities, Planning, and the New Service Economy
Ray Gastil spoke with Christer Larsson, former city planning director for Malmo, Sweden and global thought leader on sustainable urbanism, in a podcast released February 24, 2021. The talk focused on the role of opportunity related to the new service economy, and how “on-demand” urbanism is impacting the future of urban centers.
Downtowns: Adaptive Reuse Project of the 2020s
Remaking Cities Institute Director Ray Gastil Speaks “Downtowns: Adaptive Reuse Project of the 2020s in the “Covid-19: One Year Later” Series, Portland Society of Architects, March 5, 2021. The talk focuses on how downtowns are an adaptive reuse challenge that goes beyond individual buildings to the plazas, parks, and public spaces, indoors and out. The use and form of these spaces and their interconnections with the buildings that surround them are part and parcel of this reuse project. Accelerated trends, and new ones, are changing the role of central business districts, as neighborhoods, business centers, and places of equitable opportunity.
Ray Gastil spoke at the National Conference on Preservation Education (held 10/26/2020) on Adaptive Preservation: Responding to the Challenge at Scale.
http://www.ncpe.us/conference/